


Crossing Worlds - BBTAG

by OliveShen



Category: BlazBlue, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (Video Game), Persona 4, RWBY, Under Night In-Birth (Video Game)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, No OCs, POV Canon Character, comedic relief, plot heavy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21579523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OliveShen/pseuds/OliveShen
Summary: It's been months since the Phantom Field incident happened, and all of the keystone holders worlds are back to normal. But now, that all changes. Keystones make bonds with the holder when they fight, whether they like it or not. Bonds are eternal. Since SYSTEM is out of commission, the keystones bonds aren't working properly. Which sends the holders to each others worlds.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	1. The First Jump

**Author's Note:**

> Uhh first time using Archive of Our Own, so if updates get wonky, I apologize!

It's been quite a while since anything major happened in Inaba. No fog, no kidnappings, it was quite peaceful.

Well, of course it's not like I WANT anything major to just happen. I just feel like something is off.

It's been months since the incident with Ragna, Hyde and Ruby. I don't know what happens in their world, but I really hope that they're doing well. They were comrades after all.

Ragna was just... I can't really describe it. If you take one look at him you'd think he's a bad guy, but he's quite the opposite. He's got a foul mouth, but he's nice.

Hyde was a high school student, just like I am, but is capable of fighting. Edgy look, but big softie. If you just met him, you wouldn't think he'd be the fighting type. I suppose that goes for Ruby and me too.

Ruby was the youngest out of us all. Energenic, fast, and wields a scythe like no other. She makes the Investigation Team look like nobodies when compared to her actual combat skill.

"Hey, partner. You doing ok?"

I was spacing out. I hadn't noticed Yosuke was speaking to me.

"Narukami?"

He spoke loud enough to snap me out of my sea of thoughts.

"I-uh, yes? Were you speaking to me the entire time?" I stuttered, making it obvious that I was a little out of it.

"No, I wasn't," Yosuke chuckled a little bit. "but it seemed like you were thinking really hard about something. Your facial expression kept changing."

It was?

"Well, it's fine." Yosuke just shrugged it off. "You go to a new school, so of course you'll be troubled a little bit."

I commended Yosuke for at least trying to guess what I was troubled with, and laughed a little bit in the process.

"Thanks for trying, but that's not why I was spacing out."

The rest of the investigation team (minus Teddie and Rise. Rise is doing idol stuff, while Teddie wanted to do situps in the TV world.) joined in on the conversation.

Chie was just eating steak, but that didn't mean she couldn't join in. "Well, then what was the reason?"

I coughed once, not expecting to talk about the matter. "Well, um... Remember that time when we were all sucked into that one world with Ragna, Hyde and Ruby?"

Naoto replied rather quickly. "Yeah, of course. To think that other worlds existed was a lot to take. Where are you going with this?"

"Well, how do you think they're doing?" I don't think I hit them with a hard question at all, but it seemed like they never thought that after the incident. "Do you all wonder if they managed to defeat the enemy in their world and live out their lives normally? Or if they're dead?"

Yosuke seemed kind of taken aback. "Dude, do you always ask deep questions when you space out?"

It was a relatively cold day, so not very many people went outside. Windy and cold nights make it a little easier for me to space out like this.

Oh, we all thought we should still be outside the Junes food court. Nostalgia, and stuff, apparently.

"Not usually, no."

Yukiko spoke, "I wouldn't worry about them, Narukami. We were able to survive there because of them, and I bet it's the same for everyone else too. They're strong, and probably stronger than us."

At the same time, we heard a little bit of screaming, as if someone was falling. The thunk of metal hitting the ground, and all of it happened behind us. As if someone hit the ground.

Chie spoke up. "Goodness, are they alright!?"

Each and every single one of us went up to the figure, and it turns out there were two people.

It wasn't about what happened to them at this moment.

It was about who they were.

And it seemed like my eyes were deceiving me, but...

Hyde and Linne were both laying on the floor, and both seemed hurt.


	2. Awake and Adrift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The POV changes every chapter! Though it is very easy to tell which character is thinking, so I don't have to just tell you.

My head was throbbing, and numerous mumbles were the only thing that could get to my head before my brain realized it was people speaking.

I fell. From what? How? I was just sparring with Linne a few hours ago, right? It wasn't suppose to seriously injure me. The night was in effect. She'd never do that to me, even if she had some sort of anger issue.

"How'd they get here, anyways? Aren't they from another world?"

Someone spoke in the background of the throbbing. Though I wasn't able to figure out who it was, it seemed painfully familiar.

"Yosuke, I don't know. Let's have them tell us whatever they can when they wake up."

That's...

Narukami's voice.

How? How is he in Kanzakai?

Or, am I not even in Kanzakai?

I decided to finally try and get back up. I felt like I was on a bed, which made it a little harder to get up because of how comfy it was.

I sat up, holding my head due to the headache. As soon as I opened my eyes, the scene I never could have dreamed of emerged in front of me.

There's no doubt about it, that's Narukami and his friends.

My hand tried to summon Insulator, but I held it down with my other hand to stop it. Who knows what'll happen if I summon Insulator here.

"Oh, hey. He's awake!" A brown haired girl remarked.

"Hyde?" Narukami just looked at me weirdly. It was more of a surprised look.

"Narukami." I just looked around, and saw Linne on a seperate bed beside me, sleeping. "Wait, what? Wasn't I JUST in Kanzakai? I-"

My head started to hurt again, and the hand stopping me from summoning Insulator instinctively came up to hold my forehead. How bad was that fall?

As a result of my hand not being held down anymore, my hand forcefully raises up and takes EXS from me.

It was a flurry of a black and red substance, and the blade fully manifested.

My hand pointed the blade towards them, but I finally managed to pin it down with my hand again.

No doubt I scared Narukami's crew quite a bit, though. I heard a flutter of "Woah"'s and they backed away when it happened.

Narukami came up to me. "Are you alright?"

He was awfully calm.

"Yeah, I think." I was sitting on my hand, so it doesn't pull anything funny. "Sorry. Sometimes my hand just does that..."

"I assumed so." Narukami just smiled in response.

He has talked about bonds when our worlds were collided, but I never paid too much attention to what he meant by it. He does have a certain attachment to people, huh?

"So, Hyde, was it?" The same brown haired girl spoke to me. "Might as well introduce ourselves. We never really told you our names back in that world."

She cleared her throat. "I'm Chie Satonaka. The other brown haired guy is this weirdo named Yosuke."

Yosuke's pitch raised higher, "Hey, at least let me introduce myself! Not you!"

The two of them fought, so they just carried on with the introductions while they were doing that.

The person dressed in red spoke in a elegant way. "I'm Yukiko Amagi. It's a pleasure to meet you."

I spoke, "Same to you." Narukami's friends seem quite normal. It's like in:births. They're normal to you until you get bitten by a void, and able to sense that they're an irregular person.

I still don't know what their weird "persona" things are.

"I'm Naoto Shirogane. We know each other, I fought you when we first got into that little world. Sorry about that."

Oh, right. The detective. I can't tell if it's a guy or a girl, and I don't think I want to ask.

"I'm Kanji Tatsumi."

He's actually kinda intimidating...

Chie interrupted. "Don't let his appearance fool you. He's a real sweetheart."

...What?

Kanji started stuttering. "I- I wouldn't say sweetheart-"

"Hyde."

I looked to the side, and saw Linne sit up, fully awake.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Linne bashfully retorted at me, even though I didn't do anything.

"...But Linne what did I do-" she shushed me immediately, and looked at me with a stern look.

"You know exactly what you did!"

I didn't.

I got irritated, "No, Linne, I DON'T. Now how about you step off your ambiguous ass and tell me what I-"

Linne leaned forward more on her bed so that she could glare at me more. "You jumped into the air and you came crashing down!"

I did the same. "Uh, me?! I was going to LAND! If it wasn't for that weird time stop, I would have completely landed. You fell, too!"

Each sentence we spoke, we leaned a little closer to each other. "WOULD HAVE. You didn't. You're still an amateur, stop trying to do dangerous things. You're a mortal."

I heard some murmuring in the background, and a few questions such as "aren't they partners in their world?"

I ignored it, however. "Give me more credit, Linne. Even though I haven't been in very many fights, Insulator moves my body for me. My reflexes are enhanced due to it-"

At this point, we're so close to each other that we could feel each other breathing. The staredown was intense. "See, that's the problem! You're too reliant on Insulator. If you ever get seperated from it, you're no more than-"

Linne never got to finish her sentence, as we both got pushed back in our beds.


	3. Calming The Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The POV only switches between the main 4! Ragna, Hyde, Yu, and Ruby.

"Break it up you two," I intervened and pushed them back into their beds. Them arguing will get us nowhere. They seemed irritated that I interrupted, as they didn't get to end their arguement. Linne looked away, clearly angered, while Hyde just looked annoyed. "We should probably worry about other things, and not argue with each other."

They both let out a huff.

Naoto coughed. "Uh- anyways- you should know where you're staying. You'll have to stay at Narukami's place, which is here, since bringing you to a hospital or anywhere else will bring attention. No one else knows you guys."

Chie spoke in a higher pitch than usual. "Wait, what's Nanako gonna think when she sees Hyde and Linne? And Dojima, also?"

It didn't take me that long to think of a excuse. "I'll tell them that Hyde and Linne are friends who are visiting Inaba for a little bit."

I don't think they're gonna stay in this world for that long anyway, so the story might just work out.

Yukiko laughed.

A little too much.

Again.

Oh, it's still going.

Hyde and Linne look like they're judging Yukiko, which is not good if they're pissed.

Nice first impression to a worldjumping duo.

Yukiko finally stopped. "Whew, that means Nanako has a friend her age to play with."

Hyde almost choked. Did he chuckle a little bit? He faced towards us and put on a smile. "Linne is like, 700 years old or something. Actually, maybe more than that."

I choked. Hyde looked concerned for me when I did, which was kinda funny.

I always found Linne fighting to be weird, since she looked very young.

Linne finally looked back at us. "I'm immortal."

Oh.

Yosuke was left bewildered. "You mean that little girl is 700?"

"Or more." Hyde added.

That doesn't help.

Linne sighed.

I certainly didn't know what to say after that, and neither did the Investigation Team.

Hyde broke the silence, "Guys, don't sweat it, everyone i've met reacted the same way you all did when Linne revealed her age. She's not mad."

Linne stared Hyde down.

"Or, I-I hope she isn't..."

Seems she's not letting that arguement go.

It's getting late... This atmosphere isn't good. Might as well let them meet Nanako.

The crew and I had rushed in the house with Hyde and Linne on our shoulders while Nanako was watching the TV. I couldn't tell what Nanako thought about that, since everyone was shouting. I must've scared her a little bit.

"Hey hey hey." I cheerfully looked at the both of them. "You guys wanna meet Nanako?"

Hyde and Linne both looked confused. As they simultaneously asked "who?"

I smiled, and turned to the Investigation Team. "I got this. You guys can go ahead and go home, if you'd like."

Yosuke nodded, "Yeah, sure. If anything, you'd be the one to get everyone under control."

Naoto shook her head, however. "I'll stay.

Everyone else decided to leave, and left with a few murmurs.

Hyde and Linne are still left confused.

I snickered as I went to go fetch Nanako.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eeee i know it's short! It's ok! I have like 11 chapters already done since I'm adding this to this site from some of the other places I've put this fanfic.


	4. Sudden Breakthrough

"Ruby, c'mon. We're trying to be productive here and study as a duo. You're the one who asked to study together."

Weiss's bickering didn't interfere with me spacing out.

"Ruby."

I can't put my finger on it...

"Ruby?"

Something doesn't seem right-

"Ruby!" Weiss shouted into my ear, which finally brought me back into reality. I was surprised, looking at her like I saw a ghost. "For petes sake, Ruby. I know you hate studying, but at least TRY to pay attention? You're suppose to be the leader."

"Right..." I yawned, as I reached for a cookie from the plate. "What was this unit about?"

"Honestly, I don't even know. This unit's all over the place."

Well, that's rare for Weiss. I guess the notes went by too fast for her to write them down.

I ate the last of the cookies on the plate, and smiled at her. "Well, I know a bit about it. C'mon Weiss, 1 v 1 me."

"Wait, what? All of a sudden you wanted to study and then you crave action?"

I shrugged. "I mean, technically it is studying! I'll try my best to apply what we learned to fighting."

Weiss contemplated it for a while, but eventually smiled back at me. "Agh, ok. Fine. First to 3?"

A chuckled in response. "First to 3."

The walk over to the fighting place was filled with Weiss chatting with someone else, while I spaced out.

I brought a cookie along with me, the batch of them never seemed to end. Which, isn't a bad thing at all.

But, even with the cookie, today still felt extremely off. The atmosphere was... I don't know...

It gave off the sense of malice.

Which was weird, since everything was fine in Beacon.

Hm.

Weird...

Well, there's no time to contemplate it. Those tests are gonna suck, but in the end, what can I do?

Weiss and I finally reached the arena. The cookie crumbs formed a small, but noticeable, trail behind me.

Crescent Rose made a loud "shhwing" noise as it spun around me. Once Uncle Qrow taught me how to spin my scythe around really quickly, i've been doing it out of habit. It's incredibly useful in battle, too.

Now that Weiss is holding her Rapier, that made me realize that I've never fought Weiss before in combat.

Alright, get in the zone, Ruby. Rapiers hurt, but cool scythe tricks are worth the pain.

Weiss took a breath. "On the count of 3..."

"1..."

I loaded Crescent Rose with bullets.

"2..."

Swinging Crescent Rose a few times to warm up.

"Uh, Ruby? Did you also hear that loud banging noise-"

It seemed as if someone was punching the wall.

Why, though? There's a door.

A gigantic hole appeared in the walls of the building.

After all of the dust cleared up, there was a familiar figure.

The figure raced up to Weiss and I so quickly that I couldn't comprehend who it was before we got snatched.

Weiss screeched as we were both being held over their shoulder.

The clothing was familiar too... "Huh. Red jacket, huge sword, spikey hair..."

Huh. It'd be grand if they spoke.

They spoke in quite a low voice. "Stop squirming, will you? You're making it harder for me to get you guys to safety!"

I yelled out in excitement. "Ragna!"


	5. The Team Plus Ragna

"Wait, Ragna!? You mean the guy who looks like a bad guy?" The ice queen yelled and squirmed again. I ignored it.

"Hey, Ragna!" Ruby cheerfully addressed me. "So, what's new?"

...What's new? Other than the fact that I LITERALLY jumped to another world on accident, nothing else was worth mention.

The layout of the school was new to me, I had trouble maneuvering around the place.

"Yo, Ragna? Where are we going?" Ruby casually addressed me, like we've seen each other plenty of times.

"Look, Ruby, I don't know. Do you have a place that's safe?"

"Yeah, this school. The safest place I really know. How'd you get to our world, anyway? What'd you do? How long do you plan to stay-"

"I don't know the answers to those either, ok? If you have a dorm room, give me directions." After I said that, it seemed like Ruby finally felt how drastic the situation was.

"I-uh, sharp left!" Ruby screamed.

"Wha-"

I crashed into a wall and dropped the girls.

"You know what, Ruby? How about we LEAD him to our dorm instead of looking like we're being kidnapped!" Weiss demanded, and let out a hmph.

Agh, what the heck. Fine. We'll be there in a faster time if I follow someone who actually knows where they're-

"Alright!" Ruby quickly grabbed my hand, and we both zipped through the halls.

...and somehow forgot Weiss existed in the process.

Yeah, ok, nice job Ruby.

The carpet sound started getting faster, and my feet could barely keep up with it. I felt like I was going to flop right onto the floor and faint.

Before I knew it the annoying carpet noise slowed down immensely, and I fell onto the floor, causing a bigger disruption.

"Hey, Ragna. You gonna be okay down there or...?"

"Yeah, just-just give me a few seconds."

"Ah, shoot! I forgot Weiss! I'll be back in a jiffy!"

The wooshing noise of whatever the hell kind of power she had stopped quickly. I regained my composure and stood up.

There, in front of me was just a dorm door, which is not surprising, but I always thought her world would have a little more flair to it.

Well, maybe there's more to it inside?

"HEY!" Ruby yelled in excitement, and Weiss was surprisingly still standing. Rose petals fluttered in the air, which I have seen before. I assume rose petals just appear whenever she uses that power.

Weiss brought out a key and opened the dorm room. Inside were two other girls, but I only recognized one of them.

One with a black ribbon at the back of her hair was the one I recognized, but I never got her name. If I did, I had forgotten. She was the one I fought back in the Phantom Field.

The other had bright yellow hair, and honestly somehow she seemed like the party type.

"Hey, guys!" Ruby once again greeting people oh so casually, but I felt like even she was panicking. Honestly, I was really unsettled about this whole thing. "We- uh, have someone over for the time being-"

Both of the girls looked at Ruby, and back at me in rapid succession.

"Ruby, honestly, learn to read the mood." Weiss smacked her in the back of the head. She puffed up her chest and slammed the door shut so hard that it'd stun even monsters. "Blake, Yang, you see that we have an uninvited guest here."

Everyone looked at me, which honestly made me feel really out of place. More than I already was. "Okay, you know what? Let me speak for myself."

I felt like I was being led more often than not, but hell am I going to stand here and let them judge me. "Let me just say I didn't come here by choice. I don't know what the hell is happening in this world but we need to get a move on, you-"

The ribboned woman raised her voice. "Need to get a move on? From what?"

"Once I arrived here, I brought someone with me."

Ruby's high pitched voice rang throughout the room. "What? Why didn't you tell us earlier?"

To be fair, I didn't think I even had the time to do so.

"I'll tell you that after we're out of here." The feeling in the atmosphere felt even worse than before. Without thinking, I just burst a hole into their dorm with zero hesitation.

The feeling of the wind hitting my face was relaxing, but the dust in the air ruined the feeling.

"I was fighting one of the main threats in my world, he just happened to world jump with me."

The same bored voice tone spoke behind me. Unfazed about the fact that there was now a hole in their abode. "Is that who we're running from?"

"Yes. When we find out a way to get me back to my own world, I'll drag him back with me. The Mad Dog won't know what hit him."


	6. The World I Know Nothing About Shakes Me

"Hey, Narukami?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

He chuckled, and he seemed delighted. "Anytime, Hyde."

The door clunked as it's mouth closed, and the feeling of loneliness struck me once again. My smile soon turned to a neutral expression, and the rain outside didn't care for my presence.

The clock on the wall kept on moving on.

Almost midnight, huh...

Oh, right. Yesterday was The Night, I assumed that was the only reason why I was able to summon insulator from thin air here. It gave me EXS, and I didn't use insulator enough in Kanzakai to deplete it.

Though, I didn't feel tired in the slightest... Maybe because I passed out from that fall? Or was it because I was preparing for The Night again? My heart didn't know, and I don't think it cares.

I went up to the door, and let some light come in. Peeking through the little crack, all I saw was Linne and Nanako collecting pillows from all over Narukami's place, and him snoozing on the table.

I put my arms behind my head and headed towards my bed for the night. Once I plopped down I sighed.

I never thought I'd miss Kanzakai as much as I did right now.

I dreaded The Night. I dreaded getting hurt, I dreaded hurting others.

I dreaded the fact that such a precious sword belonged to such as me.

Well, I guess that will fuel my drive to get back to there. Along with figuring out how I jumped to Narukami's world. Sighing, I glanced at the clock above.

The clock on the wall made a clunking noise each time it counted a second.

Every single hand reached 12. An ominous light came from the TV, and the noise coming from it was even more so. I flinched and took a glance at it.

The strange figure caught my attention. Each and every single static strand tried to block my way into figuring out who it was.

This doesn't normally happen to TVs, right? It just turned on itself.

The figure was barely visible under the cover of static, but it all seemed too familiar to me.

The person never spoke, which made it even harder to figure out who it even was. I mean, I know I'm dumb, but even so...

The ominous figure had some sort of sword. The people they were fighting were even more unseeable. The sword figure's movements were unnatural, they made mistakes on their footwork and immediately recovered.

That reminded me of myself with insulator. I barely had any room for me to move my body, and whenever I did make a mistake on footwork Insulator always put me back on the right track.

Eventually, the owner of this sword was victorious. They set their sword on their shoulder, and that's when the colour of the sword stood out to me.

It was as red as Insulator.


	7. Abnormality Within An Already Abnormal World

A great sea of rose petals flew past, with the only thing recognizable to me was myself and the sword that I had to sneak through a certain store.

...The rose petals felt awfully familiar, but...

Wait. No, how did I get here? This isn't Inaba, I was at home-

"Ruby, you go on ahead. I'll watch your back in case more of these damned monsters come." A gruff and painfully familiar voice rang out in front of me.

Wait- Ruby? She's here? Did the same thing that happened to Hyde happen to her?

Looking around the humongous trees, I tried to find a source of the said voice.

"Gotcha!" Another flurry of red rose petals flew by, and I ran it the direction it came from.

A figure with a red jacket, huge sword, and spiky white hair was on guard. I felt my face lit up in excitement as if I was some sort of child.

No doubt about it, that's Ragna.

I speed-walked towards him, the leaves under my feet never made any noise, weirdly enough.

The rustling in a nearby bush certainly brought my attention. I unsheathed my sword, and funnily enough, that made no noise either.

Why isn't anything I do making any sort of noise? I'm not even trying to be stealthy. Ragna was on guard, and he noticed the bush's uneasiness.

But he didn't notice me standing right next to it.

I was looking right into his eyes and he never batted one at mine.

Some black wolf-like figure jumped out of the bush before I could focus back onto the hedge, and its claws paid no mind and looked like it was going to scratch me before I could even defend or summon a Persona. I brought my sword up to defend, I thought I might as well try, and before it came in contact with me-

"Narukami?"

My eyes shot open. The surroundings went from forest to quiet abode. I got chills, and a concerned Hyde was looking right at me.

"You okay? Did I disturb your dream?"

Oh, it was a dream, huh.

"Mm, yeah. You did." I lifted my head off of my arms and rubbed my eyes. "It's alright, though. I think it was turning out to be a bad one."

Hyde gave himself a seat and plucked down right across from me. "Um, I couldn't sleep. I-I don't really know why, but I thought it'd be neat to ask you questions instead."

Well, I guess that couldn't hurt. Hyde's been in the dark this whole time and we've never told him about anything in this world.

"Shoot me with any questions you got." I smiled at him, and he fiddled with his tie.

"What's your story? Like, your world's gimmick. Linne and I have just been following you guys around since we got here." He crossed his arms. "I feel as if gaining a hold on the abnormalities of this world will give us more of a chance of going back to our own."

Well, I suppose.

I hope he doesn't mind long answers.

"I-um, well..." I was thinking of some way to shorten the description. "In this town, Inaba, there were a series of kidnappings and a group of friends helped me solve the case. It may sound farfetched, but we'd go through a TV to save this kidnapped person."

"Oh, wow." Hyde's tone of voice seemed interested, and a little scared. "The TV has magical properties here?"

"Yeah, I guess. Every night when it rained at midnight, the TV would turn on and show the person who would get kidnapped next." Hyde noticeably flinched. I panicked and stumbled to calm him down. "Of course, the Midnight Channel doesn't show up anymore. We found the culprit."

That didn't seem to work, as he was even shivering a little. Was he scared of some abnormal occurrence?

Even his voice shook. "It doesn't come anymore?"

"No, not at all."

I glanced at the clock. A few minutes past midnight. The downpour of rain suited the silence. Based on all these things I realized what Hyde was going to say.

"The TV in the room I was in turned on itself, and...

I...I think I was the one shown on the screen."

Right on the mark.


	8. No Guarantee

"I... thought as much." Narukami sighed, and brought out a notebook. His hand quivered as he reached for the pen. "Though, I guess that doesn't make me any less scared..."

It took me a while to notice that I was shivering, too. "I'm...not gonna get kidnapped, right? You said you found the culprit."

"I can't guarantee that you won't. The channel isn't suppose to show up- it's long gone. How..." Narukami lightly tapped his head with the pen. His eyes drifted off of his paper. "Why is it only showing up now, of all times?"

A higher voice came from the door. "The Midnight Channel appeared...?" Naoto was standing by the door. I didn't even sense her presence. She grabbed an extra seat and plopped right next to us.

Narukami passed the notebook and pen to Naoto casually. "Aren't you suppose to be with Linne and Nanako?"

"Yes, but... i'll be back before they even know I was gone. They're sleeping soundly. They're hugging stuffies and everything."

Kind of hard to imagine Linne doing that since most of the time she's a lil mean to me, but I guess her inner child just had to do it. Well, I guess her outer child, too. I smiled after hearing such a thing, but it quickly faded.

"Naoto, Hyde is sure he saw himself in the Midnight Channel. A few minutes ago, in fact." Naoto had the same reaction as Narukami did. Surprised, but also scared.

"Did anyone else see it? Yosuke, Chie, Kanji- all of the Investigation Team. At least one of them must've been awake, yea-"

Narukami's phone vibrated. The both of us stared at him with eyes that said "Go on."

Taking the phone out, he put it on speaker. Yosuke's voice was in shock, too. But also relieved. "Narukami! Oh, thank goodness you picked up this time- you're not going to believe this-"

I interrupted him. "The Midnight Channel's back?"

"Y-Yeah! Wait, Hyde, is that you? How do you know of the Midnight Channel?"

Narukami yawned, but still responded. "Let's save that for later, Yosuke. I'm guessing you saw it?"

"Definitely! It was very hard to see with all the static, but I can describe it to you if you like! I have it recorded, too."

Narukami turned to me, and I just awkwardly stared back at him. "I'll have Hyde say what he saw, and you'll confirm it. Okay, Yosuke?"

"Alright, partner- wait, what!? Hyde saw it too!?"

"Yeah. That's how he knows about it."

I thought about what I saw. The whole thing is strange, even to me. Though i'm sure it was me, the details weren't that engraved in my mind. "I-uh, there was a guy with a sword fighting people. There was no way to identify who they were attacking. The static was too harsh to really make out any details. The guy with the sword always made mistakes on posture and footwork- but they would immediately recover. At the end, the sword was clearly bright red."

I was shaking once again. I had always thought Narukami's world was relatively normal. Now, I guess it's just like mine. Only a selective few get to experience having powers- for better or for worse.

Yosuke hesitated. "Y-You're right... Now that I think about it, it's totally him..!"

I nodded, and realized that he wasn't able to see that. I sheepishly laughed, hoping neither of them saw.

There was an eerie sound that came from Nanako's room, which distracted them from my embarrassed laughing. It sounded like the TV was on, and little bits of sound were coming out from it. Narukami and Naoto got up, and tip-toe'd towards the door. I followed closely behind.

Yosuke was waiting for someone else to continue the conversation, but it never came. "Guys? Hey, guys? Are you... seeing this?"

Narukami slowly opened the door, but I couldn't really see. They gasped, but I didn't know why.

Something grabbed my arm.

I didn't know who.

My heart beat faster as I get swung into the living room TV by this person, the noise level rising. I didn't realize I was screaming, but the TV was a little too small for my body. My hand went inside it. It was such an unusual feeling. It's like it's detached from me, but I can still feel it. I rip it out of the TV and try to face my attacker, and they square me right in the ribcage.

"Hyde!?" Yosuke's voice rang out. My body forcefully takes out EXS, and I'm drowning in pain and distress. My grip on the TV wasn't the best- and the fact that my right hand was trying to summon Insulator only left my left hand to grip the TV. They kept pushing me in, and more and more of my body sank inside, which meant more of my strength left me. Yosuke's voice got more distant, "Hyde, what's happening!?"

"N-Narukam-" I saw Narukami trying to get my attacker off of me, but they wouldn't budge. Naoto rushed to get her coat, as she was in her PJs, and I'm assuming her gun was with her coat.

My body didn't have enough EXS for Insulator, but my right hand insisted on bringing it out. I felt like I was going to faint, and the world was spinning. My right hand gave out one final push, and Insulator was in my grasp.

That's when I felt everything fade to black. M...my body couldn't take it. EXS doesn't exist in this world, I can't regenerate it. My grip became loose, and I heard Narukami yell out my name.

I didn't have the energy to respond.

I felt myself sinking into a whole new place.


	9. Shadow Scare

I was stunned when I saw Hyde faint into the TV. My heart sank. My grip on his attacker clearly reflected that, and he wriggled out of my grasp. I grab his tie, and as they dived into the TV my hand went in there along with them. A shwing noise came from the screen, and I fell backwards from trying to hold them there.

There I held the tie. Blood red, maybe was part of a uniform, cut clean on the right side. A little darker than Hyde's tie-

That's when it finally hit me.

That was Hyde's shadow.

Naoto came rushing in with her gun, shocked when she sees me alone. She puts it on safety mode and rushing towards me. "What just... happened? Did he just...? By who...?"

Yosuke's voice barged into the serious mood, "Yeah, I want to know, too! All I heard was screaming!"

I regain my composure, and immediately lose it. My voice is shaking, unable to take the sudden surge of information. "N-Naoto, Hyde just-"

Naoto's eyes grew wide at the realization, as if it wasn't already spelt out in front of her. "No, no-"

In shock, I manage to speak. "Yosuke, do you know if the others are awake?"

"What? I feel like they'd be rushing to your door or even calling you if they were.Double Midnight Channel... that's not normal at all- wait, no, you do not get to ignore my question! Hey, Hyde, what happened-"

"He fell in. In the TV."

Yosuke's mic on his phone couldn't pick up his surprise fully, and the sound quality worsened. "What!? You're joking, right? That's a sick joke, partner," his slow laugh screamed denial, "he's stronger than that-"

I purposefully ignored Yosuke's questions once again, and tried to relay back what we saw in the TV in Nanako's room.

Static. A whole lot of it. Much like what Hyde described in his own one, too. Someone was fighting the wielder of a red sword, which I assumed was Hyde.

I sighed. I couldn't watch the rest before Hyde got attacked by his shadow. I got up, and interrupted Yosuke. "Did you get a recording of the second one?"

"What the hell? Agh, yes, I did, now answer my question!" Yosuke seemed actually angry, but it didn't get to my head fast enough.

"I'm going in there," I slipped on a jacket and my hand got grabbed my Naoto.

"No, you're not. At least, not now. You're in shock." Naoto tugged my arm, "We need to wait until tomorrow. To get the team together, too. You might get hurt. You're being irrational."

My eyebrows stiffened, "You saw it too, right, Naoto?" Hers raised in confusion. "That was his shadow."

I handed her the tie. Her eyes widen when she gripped it, examining it thoroughly. She shook her head, "Either way, we must wait. They're asleep, we're in no shape to fight."

My hands turned to fist. "His shadow went in there with him. That thing's dangerous, and Hyde's passed out in there. His shadow attacked him this early on, we need to do something about it."

I couldn't shake the thought that he just might...die in there. It's haunting me. I don't want anymore victims. I knew Hyde more than the other victims, and he's not even from this world. I was thinking of how bad it must feel for his friends back home to never know what happened to him.

Losing a friend...

That's a feeling I hope I never feel. Although, I know it's going to happen one day, I don't want it to be now.

Naoto frowned at me. I frowned back.

"If you're not coming, that's fine." I forcefully release her grip on my sleeve, "I'm going-"

I felt a tremendous pain in my head. I was on the floor, my vision fading. I mustered the strength to look upwards, and saw Linne holding her blade.

I blacked out.

...

...

...

I woke up in the same forest that Ragna and Ruby were in. I groan, lifting myself up. I remembered everything from my past dream. The beast, the leaves, the rose petals, everything.

"Uh, Ragna? Can you explain why we're in the forest, again?" Ruby's voice made me jump.

Ragna's low and gruff voice was a little bit of a breath of fresh air. "I made sure that Azrael would follow me."

"You sure that's working...?" There was a girl with a black bow and black hair. "Also, why a forest, of all things?"

Ragna stuttered. "T-This was just the first place I was in when I got transported here! I already thought of a plan, don't worry."

"Mind sharing?" A yellow haired girl cheerfully remarked. She laughed as well.

I run in front of them, waving in their face to see if they're able to see me.

They just continued onward. I was left behind them.

I'm invisible to them, huh?

I wonder if I could tap their shoulder or something...?

I run in front of them once more, and stare Ragna in the face. I try to nudge him a little, before he unsheathed his sword and yelled, "Grimm!"

He slashed right through me.

...

...

...

"Hmmnngg..." I groan, putting my hand on my head. Still hurts, but, I'm glad I'm not dead. I realize I'm sitting on my own bed, and sit upright.

It's daytime. The glaring sun coming from the window made me look the other way instantly. I sighed, trying to recall last night.

The dream? No, I remember that clear as day, heh. It's last night that I have trouble recalling.

I stared at the TV in my room. It had an eerie sort of feeling that I couldn't describe even if I tried.

Then all my memories came rushing back like a wave.

My stubborness... I slapped my head and I fell back down on the bed. God, what got over me yesterday? I...I don't think it's normal for me to be like that.

I was thinking of Hyde, stuck in there. Maybe the sheer thought of it tipped me over the edge. How did... how did a shadow get out of the TV? Not only that, but it attacked him.

Hyde... I'd be lying if I didn't feel an attachment to the guy. He's the same age as me, and pretty cool to be around. Hyde was a huge asset in the fight with SYSTEM. His movements were fast, fluid, precise, and hit pretty hard. That saying, I had a lot of questions about EXS that were never answered back in the Phantom Field.

He has a full life ahead of him, too. If he dies here, he'll never experience it. Maybe that's why I was so eager to jump in...

He... he even promised to cook breakfast in the morning after Linne and Nanako said goodnight to everyone. Linne even spoke highly of his cooking, so I was estatic, despite the weird circumstance.

But I suppose that promise wouldn't come through, cause he's in the TV world. I ruffled my hair, imagining how messy it probably looks right now. Mustering the strength to get back up again, I change clothes to my regular outfit. I walk towards the door, before I suddenly paused.

I recognized Chie's voice. "We'll start as soon as Narukami wakes up. Still, though, I can't believe it..."

Yukiko followed up. "The fact that the Midnight Channel appeared not only once, but twice, or the fact that Linne just knocked out Narukami?"

"Both, I guess!"

Yosuke's voice was serious, and I haven't heard that tone in forever. "This whole situation must've really took a toll on him. I haven't heard him speak in such a manner besides when Nanako got kidnapped. I'm worried, you know..."

I couldn't help myself from smiling a tiny bit. Even though I was rude and interrupted him and never gave him an answer, he's not holding it against me. I guess that's friendship for you.

Naoto sighed, sighed so loud that I could hear it from here. "We're all worried. Everything about this... it's unsettling. Narukami's losing it, and he's the most composed one out of all of us. We all have to get Hyde back before it's too late."

Yosuke gave his two cents, "Naoto, you'd never admit this, but what Narukami said last night was... valid. If Hyde really did get dragged in by his shadow, he's in big trouble."

"I know. That's why we're going in without any clues." Naoto's tone got softer. "I just couldn't let him go in without the team. He'd lose."

Kanji was abnormally quiet, but that broke. "I hate to admit it, but he'd get his butt kicked in there. He's strong- incredibly strong, but we're facing a shadow. One we've never faced before."

Chie groaned. "And an abnormal one, at that! Shadows can't go into our world! He'd probably fight it if Linne didn't stop him from going in. ...She was really sad when she heard what happened to Hyde."

I got tired of standing around and listening, so I abruptly swung open the door. They're stunned.

"Oh, hey, Narukami!" Except for Yosuke. I smile at him.

Naoto looked away, "I...suppose you heard all of that?"

"Yeah." I nonchalantly responded, and it caught her off guard. "It's okay, though. It's all true, yeah? Hey, where's Nanako and Linne?"

Yukiko answered for Naoto. "Linne's sleeping, and we just dropped Nanako at school. We have 8 hours until we have to pick her up."

"That means 8 hours to get Hyde out of there, yeah? No problem. Let's think this through first."

Naoto smiled. "Let's wake up Linne and let her join in the discussion."

I nodded, and we all happily walked towards Nanako's room where Linne was sleeping. I heard one of the shelves fall over, and got chills. I forcefully open the door-

Linne is getting dragged inside by an arm coming from the TV. She's small, and her legs are already inside it. She spots us and her eyes are desperate, wanting us to help, and she reached her hand. Naoto immediately rushes in without hesitation and their hands touch each other for a moment before Linne sank even more into the screen.

Naoto grabbed her hand and started tugging. Kanji, Chie and Yukiko grabbed Naoto and started tugging as well. The attackers strength suddenly multiplied, and the pack that was tugging Naoto were now getting pulled, too. I put my hand in the TV and tried to grab the hand of whoever was pulling Linne.

I grasped an arm, and called Yosuke, "Yosuke! Help me pull!"

He nodded, and we were both tugging. Linne started moving our way, and the attacker was losing.

I guess they decided enough was enough, because I felt their arm push Linne back into the room instead of pulling harder. She hit the ground with a large thud, and groaned, but looked relieved.

Everyone pulling breathed a sigh of relief, but I was still holding onto their arm. They tried to wriggle out, scratching me and biting me, but I've already had my hand bitten in there before, so I didn't let go.

Their body started coming out of the TV, and I was so surprised I let go. They rolled into our room with incredible fashion, with their yellow sweater and gigantic blade.

It was Linne's shadow. Yellow eyes and everything, she pointed her giant blade at us, and Naoto pointed her gun right at her. They stood at a standstill.

"Don't move." Naoto demanded in a cold voice, and Linne started crawling to the living room. Her weapons were there. I saw that Naoto's gun was still on the safety mode, and that she was just bluffing. "Don't move, unless you want me to shoot."

I heard Linne scream from behind us. Yosuke and I rush to her aid immediately, and shadow Linne tried to advance, but was met with Naoto yelling "Don't move! Final warning." I reach the living room, only to be met with a red glowing sword at my neck. I knew too well that it was Insulator. How did the shadow get ahold of it?

Hyde's shadow held Linne as if she was a hostage. He didn't have his tie. "Let the other Linne go, or else this Linne dies." The distortion in his voice was prominent.

Yosuke was beside me in all this. He looked like he wanted to do something about it, but I spoke before he could act. "Naoto," I really didn't want to do this, but what choice did I have? "let her go."

There was silence. Naoto grunted and I heard her set the gun down on the floor. Shadow Linne rushed past me, and dove into the living room TV. Shadow Hyde threw Linne into the TV without hesitation, and Yosuke stepped forward in anger, but I stopped him. Shadow Hyde just stared at me. "You're not going to let this be the last fight we have, right? I can tell that you're not going to let it end like this."

His voice got more distorted. He started laughing, a laugh that I would never imagine coming out of Hyde's mouth. It's eerie.

"Then come catch us. The fog doesn't stop our advance."

He dived in.


	10. Promise Me

M...my head... Ouch, okay, okay- keep it together, Hyde.

My eyes open, and they quickly adapted to the familiar dark sky of The Night.

Wait, what?

I sit upwards, studying my surroundings. It's Kanzakai, all the way through. From the buildings, all the way to the atmosphere. I'm dazed, wondering if my day in Narukami's world was just a dream.

I didn't believe myself when I thought that, though. I felt EXS going into my body, as if this was actually Kanzakai. But only the amount I needed to be awake, not enough to summon Insulator or even use EXS skills. I look at my right hand.

No Insulator.

"Of course..." I let out a long sigh, felt my stomach. It was then I realized how fortunate I was at that moment.

I had no EXS left, I'm glad I didn't turn into a Void. Instead of doing that, I just passed out, and fell in a space where I could gain EXS. I felt vertigo, and raised my hand to my head. I closed my eyes, trying to make sense of everything. I felt as if I was awake in this world longer than I remember. I remember Narukami and Naoto gasping when they opened the door to Nanako's room, then... I got attacked, thrown into the TV.

Did I... get dragged to this certain place? By... someone. I remember the distortion in their voice. I was being held over their shoulder. Maybe I was delirious. I remember talking to them, but I didn't know what. I tried recalling it.

Well...I tried, but I was interrupted.

I saw Linne get thrown beside me, and literally thrown. I wanted to see who it was,but I scoot over to her and pick Linne up, and her eyes go wide at the sight of me. Her voice was breaking. "Y-You're okay!" She proceeded to hug me, and I hug back confused and dazed.

"Did you know how scared I was?" Linne spoke in short bursts, gasping for air. "I thought I- I thought you were gone! You're too young to die- you've got so many things to do! I thought your friends back home in Kanzakai would be devastated- I'd never be able to face them head on! I thought I failed to prepare you for a fight- that I'm the entire reason why you're dead! You deserved more than that- you do!" Her sentence got harder to understand due to her cries, so I stopped trying to make sense of it.

During her speech, I looked away, thinking about why what would happen if I really did die.

Friends back home, huh? How would they feel?

Orie... No, Harada. What would she feel? I'd reckon she'd... be really sad. When we fought in The Night, I felt as if she never really tried to hurt me, because we were friends. I tried to hold back, too. We knew each other well personally, I always felt right at home when I talked to her. Maybe a little too comfortable.

Yuzu. Yuzu, we've grown apart ever since I- agh, no, I'm the only one who's grown apart. She's been fine with it, I'm the one who let up. All because of something I did. It never got to her- me trying to distance myself from her. She'd be... devastated. We're childhood friends, one part of your childhood ripped apart from your life if they're just gone.

Waldstein- I mean, I don't know too much about the guy. Can we even be considered friends? Well, he likes my cooking, so I suppose that's a plus...

Vatista. I took her home that one faithful day and I think she's been happy ever since. Her and Linne steal the cookies from the top shelf, though. Would her robot likeness mourn...?

Linne. As I've just heard, she'd be devastated too. She wouldn't be able to end her immortality. ...No, Seth is back at home, isn't he? He'd be able to end it. That... didn't sit tight with me. Though, maybe she'd still be sad.

And... from what I heard earlier, she'd be sad that I never lived a full life.

Take it from the girl...

who wants to end hers.

Linne stopped making sense and just sobbed in my uniform. I let her do as she pleased, but also tried to comfort her. "Linne, It's okay, it's okay. I'm here. Cry your tears away and then let's figure out how to get out of here- wait... how did you get here?"

Linne stopped her tears from flowing, and wiped the rest away. "I got thrown in- like you did. Narukami's friends explained everything to me last night- about your shadow self, and how you fainted-"

"The hell is a shadow self? Agh, no, more importantly, where is Narukami and the others?" I glance around once more, surveying the area. I see a familiar red orbiter coming towards us quickly, and I push Linne aside and duck under it. She got up, and her tone was angry.

"Narukami's coming soon. But that thing you see right there?"

I saw the red aura of Insulator being held in the hands of myself. He's got yellow eyes, and it feels like he's got the intent to kill me. "Hyde, that's a shadow self. It's a part of you."

"Well, that can't be right. He doesn't have my tie!"

Linne started blurting out other words in an angry tone, but I couldn't even respond or understand before they sent another orbiter my way. I ran to the side, and they started pursuing me. I hesitate for a second before I get pushed to the ground by someone behind me. My hands held me up, while I look behind me in utter anger. "Linne! What the hell was that fo-"

I saw Linne being held by the throat with her own blade. I looked upwards, and saw Linne with yellow eyes glaring at me with an intent unknown to this world. What did they want? To kill us? I asked myself that question, already knowing the answer to it was yes. "I'm... guessing that's your shadow, Linne."

She gasped for breath, and the other Linne threw her aside. I get held by the other Hyde by the collar, and I grabbed their wrist and tried to release their grip, but I got thrown aside as well. I hit the ground with a loud bang. The concrete of Kanzakai was harder than I remember it, maybe that's because this isn't Kanzakai, is it? He pointed Insulator right at me. I sneered, even though the situation seemed off for it. "What, are you gonna kill me?" I was scared, truthfully. But I didn't have anything to do against him. I was being held at gunpoint, but the gun is a sword that can instantly end my life. Nor do I get an afterlife if I die by it's hand.

Shadow me pierced Insulator into my collar, and I was forced onto the floor. Shadow me laughed in a way that I would never hear from myself. There was distortion in his voice, and it was strong. Behind the distortion, he sounded like he was enjoying this. My facial expression did not hide the hatred I had for him. "Finally... finally! I can finally make you understand...! You and your unworthy self, unaware to what this power really means... What it means to wield it... What it takes to wield it...! I'll make you understand..!"

He started walking around me in a circle, and suddenly removed Insulator from my collar. He handed me a steel sword, and the clank noise made my skin crawl. He just smirked, and I got up. I pointed the blade right at him, wanting some sort of revenge. He only laughed at the sight of it. My grip got tighter, and my voice got hoarse from my anger. "I don't know what your game is... but you've made others worry and suffer because of your actions! I hope you know that I won't hold back!"

He had noticed that I had started stepping away from him, hoping to get some distance. He laughed, knowing that it was just a bluff to make it seem like I was some fearless, unshakable young adult. He rushed me, and we both clashed swords. I felt the tension of Insulator brush past me, and I was taking some damage from the clash. I felt as if that insulator was... off. The more I look at it, the more I think it isn't mine. Maybe it was his Insulator, and not my own. If I can hold off long enough to gain enough EXS to get it back, I can stand a chance.

He slashed again, and his movements were slick, where as mine was stiff. He kept slashing at my sword, and the sword almost left my grip several times. I never thought Insulator was this strong, is this what it's like to be on the receiving end? He pushed the sword forward, and I almost fell backwards, but caught myself. In the moment, I got kicked in the hip by him. It's way more powerful than anything I would be able to dish out, because I went flying into a hole in the wall. I examined it, and it was as if he made that hole even before we fought.

"Just as I feared! Who am I kidding, I knew this from the start!" He kicked me again, this time it was more powerful and I flew into the air. Why... are his kicks superhuman? The noise I made when I hit the floor was as if I was being tortured. He only laughed at my pain, and the sword I was wielding was out of my reach. "Without Insulator, you're just a kid. A kid with all bark and no bite."

He let his shoes dig into my stomach as my voice rived in pain. "A lowly, lowly child like you doesn't deserve to wield it. Without it's power to grace you, you're a pushover." His heel dug further into my stomach as my scream got more intense. I hated every second of it. His words, his actions, the pain I felt... All of it overwhelmed me. There wasn't enough EXS to keep me fighting. "Even with it's power, you're cocky, bringing it's name down with you. Would Linne even be friends with you if you didn't have the blade in the first place?"

He kicked me again, and I crashed into a wall. I could barely open my eyes, until I heard Linne's voice pierce my drowsiness.

"Hyde, keep it together!" Her yellow sweater had cuts and some blood stains on it. She opened my palm and placed the steel sword in my hand and closed it. With her speed, she probably snatched it while I was being attacked. "This is do or die, and I for sure as hell do not want you to die! Your life is worth fighting for!"

I slowly got up, with Linne's help. She only held her small knife, while the other Linne had her big one. Linne sounded confident, which wasn't what I was expecting. "Just think of this as a tag battle, Hyde. I believe we can get through this. No, we will get through this! I promise you!"

I couldn't help but feel confident too. Her enthusiam is contagious. Linne rushed in and the other me was caught off guard by her speed. I try to follow it up, but get blocked and thrown off balance. Linne manages to put his focus to her, and sounded desperate. "Go for the other me, Hyde! I've got this- woah!"

Her tiny knife cannot block Insulator, so she almost got stabbed. Thanks to her quick feet, she got through it. I rush towards the other Linne, and they gave me such an eerie feeling. They start spinning their sword, and it glows with EXS coming out from it. I sidestep, and she misses, but I get kicked in the hip by the other Hyde, and near a pole. I was facing myself once again, and my other hand clenched.Other me's hand was turning into some sort of mush, and parts of it was dripping onto the cold pavement. It reformed into a hand, and he started throwing orbiters. I didn't get the opportunity to ask myself why his hand did that. "All this talk about a promise... are you sure she wasn't just lying? You told Linne you would end her immortality, right? Right? Was that also an empty lie?"

I dodge, not as gracefully as I wanted it to be due to his ramblings, but in the end the result was the same. Other me was left wide open. I slash with a roar, as if I was still wielding Insulator. Other me blocked so quickly that it was unnatural, and I cursed under my breath. His Insulator enhanced his reflexes.

Just like that, I was thrown by Insulator's power as he slashed my chest. I screamed, the thud as I hit the ground could barely reach my eardrums. I saw Linne with her small knife at her throat, as she was forced near the pole by her other self. It was all more of a blur, however...

I felt more pain at my chest as other me steps on my stomach once more. "Get up."

I don't make a sound, nor do I move.

"I... I suppose this place isn't very abundant in EXS. I'm going to refill your body with it so you can even stand." Other Hyde seemed sympathetic. Linne was yelling my name, saying something- all I heard was "oid".

Oid... oid-

A violent pang hit my shoulder. The pain, it kept coming, over and over and over and over and over- My voice reflected how much pain I was in. This was the same amount of pain I was in when I was first bitten by a-

...void...!

Is my shadow a void?!

Okay, okay- stay sane, stay sane! If you don't, you're going to become a void, lose your humanity- lose all of your loved ones-

The pain started attacking every single fiber of my body. I was in the fetal position, wishing for it to stop- pleading for it to stop. It was immense- hurt more than anything I've ever experienced.

Stop, stop, stop it, please, stop- STOP- STOP STOP, I'M BEGGING- WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME- WHAT ELSE CAN YOU PUT ME THROUGH-

My hand was raised to the sky, as I felt power being forced into me while I forced it out. My hand was furious, grasping Insulator's hilt aggressively, and forcing me up. It pointed at the other Hyde, who was beside both of the Linne's. Linne was being held by both of the shadows, and a knife was at her throat. She looked worried, terrified- my heart was racing and no doubt hers was also.

"Congradulations," Shadow Hyde mocked me, "you stayed sane."

My tone of voice was furious- purely anger was brought out of my mouth. "Let her go and maybe I'll spare both of your lives. I'll enjoy it, even." My eyes twitched, as I tried to stay conscious. Last time I got bitten by a void, I slashed it with Insulator and passed out. Every fiber of my being was telling me to go to sleep.

"Oh, maybe you didn't stay sane." He laughed at his own sentence. "No matter, our plan is already in motion. You brought out Insulator, that's great!"

The blade at Linne's throat got closer and closer to her neck. Shadow Hyde was the one holding the blade, but it wasn't Insulator. "Either you kill Linne right here, right now... Or she dies by my hand."

I couldn't speak, nor move. The sentence was exactly what I feared. My heart was sinking, and Shadow Hyde didn't even care. He kept on saying his sentence. "Reincarnates in this other world, possessing another innocent child, ruining their future. Ruining their family. That child will never get to experience what their future may hold. All because of this princess right here."

I started thinking of ways to break Linne out of this. To get her out of Shadow Linne's grasp. I... my head is too scrambled to think of anything. Everything is too much to handle. My vision got blurry, but I could see Linne as clear as day.

I knew full well what Linne wanted. Her eyes told me. They're such sad eyes. "Hyde. I... you know I cannot reincarnate here. There's too many problems- this is Narukami's world. Would I reincarnate in this TV world, or Inaba? And... I would be taking another girl's life... you know full well how much I despise that-"

"I know!" I blurted out, tears running down my face. "I know- I know... No, I can't, Linne! I can't let it end here, not here. Anywhere but here!"

My voice is breaking. "I appreciated your company, I thought you were an amazing friend- I'm just always lonely- looking for someone, ANYONE to talk to! My life has been such an eventful life ever since you came. I'm only alive because of you. I... don't want it to end here. I don't want to kill you!"

"Listen, Hyde..." She became sympathetic all of a sudden, but her tears never dried. "I... I know that you've been trying to find a way to end my immortality without killing me. I'm so sorry- sorry that our run has ended abruptedly. I feel so guilty, guilty that you have to kill a friend. But promise me. Promise me you'll get out of here, and get this world thing sorted out. Promise me-"

Shadow Hyde stomped his feet. "I don't have all day." He moved the knife even closer, and Linne gasped.

"No, don't!" My voice rang out through the Night. He didn't kill her, thankfully. My heart sank further, as I gripped Insulator even tighter. "Linne... I promise. I won't let you down. I'm so sorry that this is the last place you'll see..."

Linne smiled. Bittersweet smile. My tears started rolling even harder. "Bittersweet, isn't it? Though, that's just the way this ends. I'm going now, Hyde."

She smiled as her tears rolled down her face. "Goodbye."

As I grab Insulator with both hands, I see a teardrop land on my hands. I try to smile back at her, but it just flops. I step backwards, ready to sprint towards her.

"Goodbye, Linne."

I sprint, eyes closed. I faintly hear a voice.

"Strike through! Ziodyne!"


	11. Thank Me? You're Joking.

"Alright, let's lay down some ground rules first." I hand everyone our glasses, and then speak. We were in front of the TV in Junes. Yosuke had the key, and the store was closed for a few hours. "One. We cannot let Hyde say that his shadow isn't him. Naoto told me that Linne already knows that she shouldn't say those words. She told her when I was passed out and gave her a recap on just about... well, everything."

Kanji sputtered. I look at him questioningly. He brought out the words, "But... why shouldn't they say it? He'll never get over with what his shadow shows him if he doesn't do that! He needs to accept it, not ignore it! We let Naoto say those words because she needed to face those problems-"

"I know," I sighed. "But, as we could tell, these aren't normal shadows. What if they get a Persona afterwards and then they go back to their own world? What would happen? We can't find out without putting them in potential danger."

Kanji nodded, and I smiled back at him. "I... I understand."

"Two." Naoto cut in for me, and I just let her. "Don't underestimate the shadows. Just as Narukami said, they're not normal. They came out of the TV and into our world; something that no shadow has ever done. They took Hyde and Linne right in front of us with barely any problems. We need to be cautious."

No one had any objections that time, so I set another rule. "Our objective is to subdue the two shadows. We have the advantage in numbers, as long as they don't transform, we should be able to do this. Do not, I repeat, do not kill the shadows. This should be a given. No one knows what that could do to Hyde and Linne."

Yosuke put his hand in the middle of our circular formation, and sounded confident. "Hands in. We got this!"

I stuck my hand in on top of his and smirked at him. Though he can be the butt of a joke most of the time, when it really comes down to it, he can be reliable when he needs to be.

Everyone elses hands were now in the middle. I chuckled, "On three!"

"One!" Naoto exclaimed.

"Two!" Chie passionately roared.

"And three!" I stuck my hand inside the TV, and everyone else jumped into it. I dived in last.

...

What the...?

This doesn't look like the regular Shadow World! There's buildings everywhere... The sky is purple. So purple.

Thankfully there was a shop that had TVs in the front window. I snapped out of my daze and realized that I was on top of almost everyone. I fumbled and rolled off of them, and they all hit me with the same annoyed tone and groan. I sheepishly laugh and put my hand behind my head.

Yosuke was at the bottom. He was groaning the loudest. Once everybody got up, he complained. I didn't comprehend what he said, though. I was too engrossed in the surroundings.

I clasp the sword we snuck into the store and look up at the sky. I see a black blob on the floor, and I stab it. It writhes around and it molded into a pointy spike, and it tried to stab me with it. I barely dodged, and my heart started racing. Yosuke comes in and stabs it along with me. It stops moving.

"What the..." Yosuke muttered. "Do you think these are shadows? They seem so different. I get a completely different vibe from them."

"Same here," I look at the dead blotch on the floor. It looked the same as before, but somehow more dead. I see another one, and it's moving faster and farther away. Oh, there's multiple! "Everybody, look over there!"

Kanji yelled. He was always the loudest out of our group. "Oh, they're running away! Let's follow them!"

Naoto flicked her hat backwards. "Let's persue them! Maybe we'll find the main shadows there!"

Yukiko and Chie both dashed in first, and everyone followed suit. We ran into an ambush. Many blobs came from above, and I yelled, in unison with the others, "Persona!"

Izanagi followed my call and pierced the falling blobs. They didn't get a chance to morph, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I glance behind me, and everyone's Persona's are out and fighting their fight. They all took care of it. I couldn't help but smile at them.

All the blotches fell to the ground with a splat as everyone retracted their Personas. In the midst of the silence, we all heard a blood curdling scream. All that flooded my mind was that we might be too late. We all turned in unison to where it came from, and started sprinting. We didn't even have to speak to understand everyone's feelings. Is it because of our bonds? Or maybe it's just our common sense...

Suddenly hundreds of blotches appeared in front of us and made a barrier. I stopped in my tracks, and shattered the card. Izanagi came out and a laser of electricity broke their wall. They began reforming it with incredible speed. My heart is racing, racing against a powerful opponent. I only wondered what it was up against. In other words, maybe... I was just very stressed. I don't think I can muster up another laser.

I started thinking of ways to break their formation, but Yosuke started throwing his Personas ninja stars at the pack. Naoto fired her gun. Yukiko threw fire. Chie punched and punched and even her Persona was fired up and slicing. Kanji threw lightning bolts.

Yosuke looked at me dead on, with determination written across his face. "We can hold them off, partner! We'll catch up with you after we're finished! Do what you need to do!"

I smiled at him once more. A smile that contained full gratitude. I dashed into the hole in the blotches, not scared if any of them would hit me. The others were distracting them.

Alright, alright. Just find where Hyde and Linne are and protect them until the others come and back me up-

"Bittersweet, isn't it?"

What? Linne's voice. What does she mean by-

"Though, that's just the way this ends."

I dash even faster. My strides get longer.

No, no, NO. I am not letting someone die! Not again, I will not let another fall victim to this world! Especially not those not even from my world!

"I'm going now, Hyde."

At- At least wait a few more seconds! Please, I'm begging, I'm running as fast as I can!

I reach the other side of the building, and I see what is unfolding. Hyde's crying. Holding insulator in both hands, and Shadow Hyde has Linne's throat held up with a knife. Shadow Linne smirks as it all unfolds. Izanagi appears in front of me, aiming towards Shadow Hyde.

The real Hyde breathes a weak breath. "Goodbye, Linne."

He dashes up to them, and is about to stab Linne.

I yell. Roar, even. All my energy poured into my attack. "Strike through! Ziodyne!"

I notice a yellow light appear underneath me.

...

...

...

I opened my eyes. I sit up with a heavy gasp, and gaze at my surroundings, searching for anyone- anything.

Trees. Trees everywhere, bushes everywhere. I try to stand up, which was a challenge due to how high I fell from. My sword pierced the grass, as I bring myself to stand fully. I heard a bush rustiling nearby, and charge with all I had.

I cut open the bush, and Hyde's Shadow stared right at me, having trouble standing himself. My hands clenched. "Izanagi!"

Shadow Hyde looked scared himself, and it almost stopped my advance. Almost. Izanagi grabbed him, and pinned him against the nearest tree. I heard a loud thud, and Shadow Hyde screamed.

Anything to subdue him, I'll try. Even if it means hurting him.

I walked up to the tree, and looked at him straight in the eye. My expression didn't hide that I was clearly angry. "I have you. Try anything funny, and Izanagi's grip gets tighter."

"Okay, okay, okay-" Shadow Hyde seemed desperate. My expression got even more annoyed. He tried to gain some sort of composure. "I-I wanted to thank you-"

Izanagi's grip got tighter, and Shadow Hyde yelped. The distortion started to gradually disappear, and he sounded more and more like Hyde. Well, more than he already was. It made it harder for me to hurt him, but I still grilled him. "Thank me? That's bull! I stopped you from accomplishing your goal, and instead of being angry, you're compassionate!? You're a shadow. You're not capable of such a thing. So help me if you're not one-"

A goopy substance started spreading through Izanagi's hand. As soon as a drop hit the ground, the rest of the substance forced their way to the bottom. I looked up, and Shadow Hyde was gone. Looking back down, Insulator was being pointed at my neck. Shadow Hyde sighed.

I stood there, wondering why he didn't start attacking me. I gulped, and he stared at me. His hands started shaking, and he eventually stopped putting his sword to my throat. The distortion in his voice was faint, "Good thing I'm not fully a shadow, hm?"

I stepped back. He didn't mind. I clenched my sword, in case he ever did try something. "What do you mean? Also, how did you do that goopy thing?"

"Save questions for later," he brushed himself off, "As I already told you, I wanted to thank you."

"What? Why...?"

"I haven't been in my right mind until I got here. The reason for this is because of you." What... what does he mean? There's no way he didn't mean to hurt Hyde and Linne. They're shadows, and what they did was far from gentle. Linne would've gotten killed had I not intervened. "I'm... not asking for your forgiveness, but I am asking for your cooperation."

"Cooperation? For what?"

"To get Hyde and Linne back to their respective world. We both want that. You don't know it, but your world wants that as well." I opened my mouth to question him once more, but he continued. "I will not tell you more about it unless you agree to help me."

My grip on my sword loosened. Why... why did I feel obligated to trust him? I feel as if I'm going to get backstabbed... No, maybe that's just the fact that he's a shadow. No shadow has ever been this cooperative, let alone tried to get me on their side. "Tell me what you know first. Then I'll decide."

"No." Without hesitation, he rejected that offer. "That's a clear contradiction to what I just said. You have to agree first."

"I will not waver until you at least tell me why you're doing this."

"Fine. Fine. This is all I will tell you for now." He sighed, and his stoic stare pierced my skin. "I'm a void, and a shadow. A void is an entity in Hyde's world, which only acts on instinct. No thoughts or mind of it's own. Starts attacking anything it sees. But... I am a part of Hyde. That gave me a consciousness. If I were just your everyday void, I would only act on instinct. I am every part he would deny. Him thinking he's a burden without Insulator, him knowing he's lonely and that he would talk to anyone to make himself feel otherwise, him knowing Insulator might have to take Linne's life one day, and his strong desire to prove that he isn't just a weight on everyone's shoulder. That is who I am. I am him. I know him inside and out. Deep down, I know he wants to go back to Kanzakai. He dreaded the tag battle tournament, because he had to fight so many people. He has a feeling that it's starting once again. I do not want him to feel even worse."

"There's no way that's the only reason. Are you hiding something?"

"...Deep down, he wants you to stop worrying about him." He smiled at me, something I never thought he would do. "He respects you, he respects you a lot. He respects your abilities, your friends, and most importantly, how well you get along with others. He does not want you to get hurt because of him being flung to your world. He hates having his powers. He hates that he's being any sort of inconvience to you. All he wants is to go back to a normal life, one without his so called destiny."

The real Hyde would have never said that to my face, huh? I'm... gonna have to tell him later that he isn't any inconveince. I felt safer. I felt as if I could trust this shadow, and reach out my hand and he'd grab it. It'd be free of malice. Free of any negative energy. Without a shadow of a doubt, I felt could trust him. I smiled back at him. "Okay."

"You trust me?"

"Yes." I raised my hand for a handshake, and he confidently clasped his hand with mine. I shook it, "I agree to help you bring both of them back. But, uphold your end of the offer and tell me what you know. About everything."

He reached into his pocket. "I wasn't planning to reveal this to you until I could trust you fully, but..."

He opened his palms.

There was a purple keystone. It glimmered in the natural light. It would've been more beautiful if it hadn't been related to SYSTEM. I was shocked, beyond belief. I thought these keystones were destroyed, along with SYSTEM. "How do you... have this?"

"It was a part of me. Meaning this keystone was also a part of Hyde." He hands it to me. "I think it is better of in your hands."

"Why? You've kept it safe. I think you should."

He just shook his head at my statement. "I might give in to my instincts if we go back to Inaba. It needs to be in sane hands."

"Sane... If we go back...? Wait, what? We're not in Inaba? Okay, you know what? Tell me everything you know. Right at the beginning. Beginning of your story, too."

He groaned. Turned his gaze away from me, and his tone was serious. More serious than he's been, which is saying a lot. He sat back towards the tree I pinned him to, and I sat down beside him.

"I just popped into your world. Started existing. The only thing my body was telling me to do was to make the real me understand who they really are deep down. It's like a bad dream. You do not understand why you're doing something, but you're body is just doing it. I felt as if I wasn't in my right mind, even though I never experienced being in my right mind. My body screamed for me to kill him, and take his place in the world. That was all Shadow Linne wanted, too. I successfully sneaked into your world and brought Hyde into the TV world. He was delirious. Him and I, we had a conversation. That is when I snapped out of my instincts. Right then and there, I did not want to kill him."

"What did you two talk about? It must've been a strong topic for you." I play with the purple keystone as it beckons for my attention with it's glowy likeness.

"He asked me who I was. I responded, 'I am you.' I expected him to deny my sentence, but he just replied with 'If you're me, what am I feeling right now?' I had to think about an answer. 'You're feeling sick, pain, misery, and most of all... you feel like you're always going to be second rate. That you'll never feel good enough. Never. No matter what you do. Even if you do everything right. Defeat Paradox, take away Linne's immortality, protect the Night and no one falls victim anymore, you feel like you would never be enough even then. You're struggling to meet the impossible standards you set. And that slowly eats away at you. You cannot escape what your sword demands from you.' He laughed at my response. 'I guess that... means... you really are m...' He passed out again before he could finish that sentence. If he finished his sentence, maybe he would've never have to have gone with what I put him through. He would've been fine, free from all that pain. I wouldn't have to have forced EXS into his body.

"EXS? I've heard of that before, but I still know very little about it. Can you fill me in?" I dodge talking about Hyde's feelings. I wanted to sympathize with the real him, not shadow him.

He raised his hand and Insulator came out of it. "EXS is something inside Hyde and Linne, as well as every other being who has powers in Kanzakai. They need EXS to use abilities such as Hyde summoning Insulator and throwing those orbiters. There is a limit on how much people have. If they use too much, they are at risk of becoming a void, but people just end up passing out before that happens."

"Void..." I mumble, and Shadow Hyde picked up on it.

"Oh, do you not know about those either? You... should've told me when I told you I was a void." I mumble a quick apology, and he just sighs once more. "Voids... they are a blotch of EXS that go around attacking people who can interfere with them. They are incapable of thinking, 'cept for me. If you are bitten by one and you cannot keep your sanity, you become a void, too. If you keep your sanity, you become an In:Birth. A human with unnatural powers, which is what Hyde is."

"What do you think is the reason for you having thoughts? You said that voids can't have one."

"Who knows? My best bet is because I'm Hyde's shadow. Maybe... maybe I'm the a part of him that might turn into a void. A deep deep part. Once you turn into a void you still look like them for the most part, and then it slowly degrades into an unrecognizable mush."

"The shadows I fought... they weren't normal everyday shadows. Judging by your description, they seemed like voids! You're another fusion of those as well... Do you... know how this fusion happened?"

"I'm not as much of a detective, nor do I know. I can tell you everything else, and you can try to take a shot at it."

I expected as much, but that didn't waver how large my sigh was. "Alright... What do you mean this isn't Inaba?"

"The same thing that happened to Hyde happened to you. You've been flung to another world. Maybe that's why I'm able to control my body, since we aren't in the same world as the real Hyde. The urge to kill him isn't there."

I immediately started looking at my surroundings. He's right, no place in Inaba has this big of a forest.

Wait, forest...? I remember this forest... The leaves on the ground, and the atmosphere giving off a creepy vibe. I took a whiff of the air, and I could faintly smell blood. "Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?"

"The blo-" He threw an orbitar above me, and something big collasped onto my back. I scramble to get the thing off of my back, and realized it would be better if I just scrambled out of there. I got off, looked at my hands. Blood. Blood red. I almost died to a beast. A big black beast jumped from the bushes, also wounded. Blood gushing out of it's body. "Persona!" I say out of instinct, and Izanagi pierces it's mouth. It is now on the floor, along with their fellow beast.

I almost fully relaxed myself afterwards, but Shadow Hyde scoffed. "There's others."

How can he-

"Carnage sci-" A certain white haired fighter clashed his blade with mine. I stand there, swords still clashed, dumbfounded.

"Ragna!?"

"Wait, what? Yu!?" Ragna immediately released the clash on our swords.

"Alright! I'll take the other gu-" A familiar high pitched voice zoomed across the area, and aimed straight for Shadow Hyde.

"Wait, no! Ruby, don't fight him!"

But it was already too late.

Their weapons had clashed together. Ruby's face had regret written on it, as a red glow gleamed beneath them.

They both disappeared without a trace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's everything! Now you'll have to wait for updates just like everyone else in other platforms. Almost done next chapter, though!


	12. File Frenzy

"Greetings lost children. I am Professor Kokonoe, genius scientist and ruler of the Sector Seven laboratory- wait, what!? How are you two even here!? I didn't say enter yet!"

A pink tailed woman started sputtering as I was on the floor. So was Hyde, but, he hasn't said anything to me. He was just leaning against the drawers of this random lab. We've been here for at least 10 minutes, and I did try to start a conversation, but he didn't respond. Was he mad at me, or was he just lost in thought? I hope it was the latter.

Either way, I waved at her. "Hi...?"

"Don't just wave at me all nonchalant, dammit!" She yelled so loud that it made me stand back up. It even broke Hyde out of his thoughts. "Who even are you two!? How'd you get here!?"

"Uh... Dunno. All I remember is falling into this lab." I fiddle with my cape, hoping she doesn't erupt again. "I... certainly don't recognize you, though! Do you know of the Phantom Field? Hmm?"

"No, I don't!"

"Okay, maybe if I say a few names, that might do it?" I started taking a huge breath, and she put a finger on my lips to stop me.

"Screw it! I'm just gonna take a look at your profile!" She runs off in the other direction and somehow pulls out a folder from mid-air.

"Wait, what!? My what now!?" I scramble to her and try to grab the folder from her hands. Her tail smacks my face, and I just give up. "I don't get it! This place is weird! Your name is Professor Kokonoe, right? Can you explain why I can't walk out the door?!"

She turned to look at me after ignoring my pleads. She seemed to have read the folder pretty quickly. "Ah, I see I see... Still, this... doesn't explain how you got into the gag reel room."

Both Hyde and I spoke in unison and with the same confused tone, "The what now!?"

"Actually, before I do anything else, let me properly introduce myself. I'm Professor Kokonoe, as you already know from my previous introduction. I'm a scientist, and this room is basically for counseling. I did call it a Love Clinic a few times, but, eh." Counseling? Why does she need a counseling room? "Did you two die or something? The only way you can enter here is if you got some sort of bad ending, but you're not even from this world! Who exactly are you two-"

"Wait, I'm DEAD!?" I turned to face Hyde and started shaking him. "Nooo! If this is where people go when they die, I want no part in it! None! This lab is giving me the creeps!"

"Wow! Okay, don't just call my lab creepy!" Professor Kokonoe blurted out once more and pointed towards Hyde. He shook me off, and I once again put my hands back to my side awkwardly. "You, with the loose belts! What do you remember before you got here?"

Hyde put a finger on his chin, recalling everything. "I clashed weapons with Ruby here. That's it. Next thing we know, we fall into your lab and had to scramble to get your files back in their drawers. I think some of them are mixed up."

"Uh... Well, it's alright, I'll just sort those out later." She grabbed another folder from mid-air. "Let's see your file, loose belts."

"I know I ignored the first time you called me that, but just stop- wait, my file?! No, don't! How do you even have that?! I'm not from this world!"

"You do know belts are supposed to go on your pants, not overtop your shirt, right?" She spun in a chair, and Hyde was giving off a scary glare and scary aura. I don't think that aura suits him, but I did think something was off about him. I just can't tell what it is.

Wait, did he say "not from this world"? Did we jump to another world?

That... does explain a lot of things, though.

"Wow, your file has a lot of details, loose belt."

"I am GOING TO LOSE IT IF YOU CALL ME THAT AGAIN-"

"Here, Ruby, take his file. Hyde, take Ruby's file." She flung both of the files at us, and we ended up holding them while looking at each other. "I think it may help you figure out what's going on, but you'll need to explain most of it to me. I'm not from your world."

I looked at Hyde's file. It had his name, so that's probably how she knew our actual names. Hyde's file had the word "Shadow" before his name. I was visibly confused. I looked up and Kokonoe looked like she was impatient, so I opened er on up.

Shadow Hyde Kido

Status:

Alive

Traits:

Straight-forward, understanding, strong-willed, compassionate.

Cocky, troubled, daft, naive, stubborn, not open with his true feelings, inexperienced in combat.

Note: Positive traits are being suppressed by the negative ones due to this entity being the shadow.

Abilities:

Able to use EXS.

Able to wield Insulator. Insulator targets EXS in other people's bodies and cuts EXS. It can result in the death of re:births. Death by Insulator results in no afterlife.

Able to sense other people's presence via their EXS.

Extra details:

He is a shadow. He is not the real Hyde.

He is a void.

Used to have the purple keystone. Given to Yu Narukami.

Can cook.

He is from Kanzakai.

Ok, well, everything in this file is important to know. Maybe except for the last one...

I scooch over to Hyde- agh, no, to Shadow Hyde. This file... says this isn't the real him. I mean, I did see his glowy yellow eyes. I have to ask him about how he came to be.

"Silver eyes...?" Shadow Hyde muttered as he reached the end of my file. I look at my own file, but the only thing I could clearly see was the silver eyes part under abilities.

Wait... why is that under abilities? It's just the color of my eyes. I cleared my throat before speaking to Shadow Hyde. "Ah... uh... Hyde- no, uh, Shadow Hyde...?"

He looked quite surprised. "Wait, what...? How did you know I'm a shadow? There's no way that's in the file!" He grabbed the file from my hands and skimmed it. I just stood there awkwardly. "How does it have all this stuff!? And the fact that I gave the keystone to Narukami is in here too!"

"And that you can cook!" I chimed in to feel less uncomfortable, but Shadow Hyde just glared at me. "Ah, uh... I mean, haha... That's not a bad thing, you know...! Being able to cook is cool...!"

Kokonoe groaned. I honestly forgot she was there for a second, but I'm glad she broke the awkward interaction. "Alright, spill it, loose belts. I need to know about shadows before you leave here."

Shadow Hyde sighed, accepting the fact that his new nickname was in fact 'loose belts'. "Well, I don't have much of a choice, now do I? What a stupid door..."

He did, in fact, tell Kokonoe and I everything. It was long, and I thought I had at least an idea of what he was saying, but it just didn't click too well with me. I couldn't even ask him to repeat it either, I'm scared of his glares. God, I don't think the real Hyde would glare at me like that..! He said the real Hyde was in Narukami's world, and I wondered about what he could possibly be doing. Trying to get back home, maybe. Shadow Hyde also said something about being a void, and I just shrugged it off as being the same thing as a shadow while keeping in some of the more important details.

"Ruby."

Agh, I don't understand! Why are we jumping from world to world? How did Shadow Hyde even have the keystone? I mean... he did say it was a part of him, so is the red one a part of me, too? Do I have to yoink it out of my body?

"Ruby..."

Hm... But I thought the keystones were destroyed alongside SYSTEM...! How are they still intact?

"Ruby!" Shadow Hyde raised his voice, and I did scream a little. "Did you listen? At all?"

I wave my hand and smirked. "Of course I was listening!"

"Recap."

"Uh... You were trying to make the real Hyde realize who he was deep inside, but he kinda just ignored you, right?" I went up and started patting Shadow Hyde's head. "It's okay, Syde. All that matters is that you didn't kill him-"

"Syde. Are you serious? You're calling me Syde!?" Shadow Hyde's voice got way lower, and he flicked my hand away. "I swear, out of everyone I've encountered in the single day I've been alive, you two somehow ruffle my feathers way more than the actual Hyde did."

"Eh, all the jokes might just be because we're in the counseling room." Kokonoe flicked a lollipop wrapper at his face.

"What does THAT have to do with it!?"

I try and distract everyone from fighting. "Hey, Shadow Hyde? Do you have any idea why or how we are getting flung to other worlds?"

"Huh? I mean, I feel like if I did, I would've told you both by now. But," he stared off into the distance. By distance, I mean the farthest wall. "I did jump two worlds already... I could at least tell you what I think is going on."

"Well, shoot." Kokonoe rolled around in her chair.

"Every time someone is flung to another world, they clash weapons. First, the real Hyde clashed weapons with Linne, Narukami clashed weapons with me, and finally, Ruby clashed weapons with me shortly after." He suddenly turned towards me. "Did you ask if the same thing happened to Ragna? I only saw him for a brief moment because you clashed weapons with me."

Ignoring the clear fact that he basically said 'we're in this because of you', I respond to him. "I can't really confirm, but Ragna did say that he was trying to catch some guy off guard in the forest... He referred to him as 'Mad Dog', or something of the sort-"

"So that's what happened!" Kokonoe sprang up from her chair and started writing down what we just said. "Ragna was fighting Azrael today, and once they started fighting, this weird light overcame the two of them and they disappeared. Not only that, Tager mentioned something about a weird dream a few months back, but I couldn't find him for a few hours when he said he was sleeping... It was about three other worlds colliding, and he had to watch Ragna and 3 others duke it out against some spinny crystal thing. Were you two apart of that?"

"Yes." Hyde immediately gave a response. "Well, I suppose not to me, it didn't. For the real Hyde, he was flung to that place, and they destroyed the source."

"Any clue of what the place was called?"

"Phantom Field."

"Alright, well," Another folder appeared out of nowhere once again, labeled 'Phantom Field". She smirked, "Well, would ya look at that? Man, I really am a God in this room. Hah, I wonder if I could pull files of anyone else..."

She opened er on up, and her facial expression went from smug to disappointed. She threw the file between Hyde and me, and we both stared at each other. She sighed, "There's little information in there. Maybe because this is a subject from another world... Yeah, I'm just surprised the files even showed up."

I picked it up and looked at its contents.

Phantom Field

Status: Destroyed.

The location of the Tag Battle Tournament. 4 worlds were forced into battle by SYSTEM. Individuals who were solely responsible for destroying SYSTEM were Ragna the Bloodedge, Yu Narukami, Hyde Kido, and Ruby Rose.

Huh. Nothing that I didn't know before. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed. I thought we could at least get a clue of what was happening...

"I don't understand..." Shadow Hyde peered over my shoulder. "If there's little information because this is an otherworldly subject, how did the files have so many details about us?"

"I say it's because we're in this world and not the others." I blurt, clenching the file. "Professor Kokonoe? Could you try getting a file of 'Keystones'?"

She reached into the air, and a file dropped into her palms. Reading it carefully this time, she threw it in the air towards the two of us. Hyde caught it. I peeked over his shoulder, and he noticed, but didn't exactly give me more room to see.

Keystones

A solid that can hold the power from fights. Creates bonds between the holder and the creator whenever the holder fights. They still exist today even without the creator present.

Creators whereabouts: Unknown

These bonds cannot be broken unless the keystone breaks.

Current status of keystones:

Red keystone: Recharging. 0% done.

Blue keystone: Recharging. 67% done.

Purple keystone: Recharging. 89% done.

Yellow keystone: Recharging. 2% done.

Current whereabouts of keystones:

Red Keystone: Love Clinic

Blue Keystone: Grimm Forest

Purple Keystone: Grimm Forest

Yellow Keystone: Grimm Forest

Hyde looks at me, confused. I was confused too, so I couldn't really say anything to him about it. He spoke, "Recharging...? Wait, they've been used recently?"

"The red one has 0%, while the rest have some numbers at least... How can that be?"

Shadow Hyde put his hands on his chin, and contemplated. He stared at Kokonoe for a bit, but she didn't return the gaze. She huffed, "You two can talk about it, I don't understand a damn thing this file is saying. Catch me up on it later, I'd just be a bother in the conversation."

He nodded in understanding, and turned towards me. "The red keystone... You had it when you first entered the Phantom Field, right?"

"Yeah, I did..."

"These percents... I feel like they're some huge clue, but I'm clueless as to what it means..."

I snagged the file from his hands, reading it over again. I mutter, "Out of everyone, the purple keystone has the most energy recharged... Wait, Shadow Hyde, YOU had the purple keystone, right?"

"Correct... When I had it in my palms, it seemed as if it had no light. When I gave it to Narukami when we were in the forest, most of the light had come back."

"And then there's the blue keystone... I'm assuming that one's Ragna's. 67%... Wait, the yellow and red one are Narukami's and I-"

"And you two jumped worlds recently! That must be why they're at lower percents!" His eyes lit up, and mine widened in realization.

"You're right! The purple and blue keystones are Hyde's and Ragna's... and it's been hours since they jumped a world, hasn't it? That's why they're higher!"

"Maybe... Once they recharge fully, if the holder fights someone, they get sent to another world with their opponent! That explains the whole clashing weapons situation we mentioned earlier!"

Everything started clicking so quickly in my brain, that I go in for a high-five. Shadow Hyde high-fived me with surprising strength, and I wiggle my wrist around in pain, sharply breathing. "A-Anyway, I believe we just figured it out!"

Kokonoe coughed loudly. I genuinely laugh, "Kokonoe, this is all thanks to you!" She smiled. I don't think she's used to receiving thanks all too often.

I feel my stomach, wondering if the keystone was in my body or not. "I'm assuming the keystones are a crucial part of understanding why this is happening to us."

"I believe so too."

"You thinking of what I'm thinking?"

He chuckled. "Collect all the keystones, right? Hah, it's like the Phantom Field all over again."

All the fear I had for Shadow Hyde has disappeared. Even though this Hyde's negative parts of him are increased by tenfolds, I still get along well with him, huh? Does Hyde feel like being too open with his feelings is a bad thing? Even so, I picked up Crescent Rose. "I suppose it is, Hyde! Now, how do we get the keystone out of me?"

"Do you have something to hide from others? Emotions, something you did, something you'd deny if said straight to your face?"

"...Doesn't everyone have something of the sort?"

He ignored my question.

"Good. We're going to have you face your shadow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLOT PLOT PLOT PLOT EEEEEEE
> 
> Anyway, if you're confused about where exactly they are, they're in the counseling room that BlazBlue characters go in when they get a bad ending in Continuum Shift. That location is basically used as a gag reel location, and Kokonoe has to give the characters advice before they can leave the room. Kokonoe's a God in that room and can do a lot of random things. I suggest searching it up if you've never heard of it.


	13. Back from Destruction

"Okay, what you're telling me is that wasn't Hyde back there, and that in your world you have to face shadows of yourself...?" Ragna fiddled with his collar and stared me down. "If what you're saying is true, even I think that's frightening. I only saw Hyde's shadow for a few seconds, but even I thought his aura was threatening."

Weiss was walking right beside us, and the other girls were walking slower in the back. "Hyde... I remember him. He saved me from some brute who even SYSTEM couldn't restrict. That means Hyde went to your world... Does that mean he's going through the same situation Ruby is going through?"

I responded, but truth be told, I was unsure of myself. "I... I believe so. That flash of light... It's what showed up before I jumped to this world. Though, I still don't have an idea as to why it's happening."

Yang got a chill. She held her arm in uneasiness and sounded concerned. "Hey... Yu...? Do you... do you think Ruby's going to be alright?"

"Hm?" I look back at her and see her staring at the ground as we walked. I knew what she meant by that. Her sister is far off in some other world, and she has no idea if she's safe or not. Also, she's with Shadow Hyde. I trust Shadow Hyde, but the others only had a glimpse of him and his threatening aura. We all have no way to know if she's safe. I think about my response before speaking.

Ruby helped Ragna, Hyde, and I with putting down a being that combined all of our worlds. She's quick, fast, and better with weapons than I could ever be. I trust her enough to know that she's going to be safe. Shadow Hyde is with her, too. Whatever that Shadow may be, I have no doubt in my mind that they're strong enough to protect each other. I smile at Yang, "I know she'll be alright. You know her better than I do so you know how strong she is, right?"

"I... Yeah."

"Have more faith in her. She can fend for herself. She has company as well, they can both keep each other safe."

Ragna tapped my shoulder. I turned to him, and I bumped into a tree and made a noise. Yang caught me and chuckled a little. I felt my head spin a bit. No, more than a bit. It seemed... unnatural. All of a sudden my head felt like it was being fried, and Yang had to force me up. She still held me as I wobbled. "Woah, you alright?"

"I... Don't know. All of sudden I'm just feeling off..." Yang let go of me, and I still wobbled. I looked beyond the tree, and saw a cave with an ominous red glow.

Blake went over and felt the cave walls. "This cave wasn't here before... The glow too, it's making my skin crawl..."

Ragna stumbled and put his hand on my shoulder. I look up, and he speaks in a gruff voice. "Hey, Yu, do you feel woozy as well...? I feel as if I'm about to tumbl-"

Before I could say yes, Weiss nudged Ragna a tiny bit and he fell to the floor. She held back a laugh, and before he could emit a hefty amount of swears, Yang seemed the only one concerned for Ragna. "Did you two somehow get sick or something?"

I reached for my forehead. No, it's not too warm, which means I'm not sick... I shake off Yang's grasp and go towards the cave. The light was brighter in there, to no surprise. But the brighter it got, the faster my head spun. Blake appeared beside me, holding my shoulder to keep me stable. "Hey, are you feeling alright?"

"I... I really don't know." I tell her straight up, and she calls over Weiss and Yang, and Yang was carrying Ragna on her back for some reason. Was he feeling the same thing I was? My head spun even more just trying to think about it.

Ragna squirmed around a little, but Yang just repositioned Ragna to be more secure on her back. He groaned, wanting to get off, but he just slouched in defeat. He held his forehead with his hand, and started breathing heavier.

I decided I would try and figure it out as I went further into the cave. The farther I went, the more pain my head felt. I look behind me as my breathing gets to the same pace as Ragna's. Weiss, Blake and Yang both seem to be absolutely fine. I lean against the hard stone wall, trying to get further into the cave.

As soon as I took one more step, my eyes couldn't deal with the red light any longer. They started blinking faster. Maybe I really am sick... But now? Out of all the times I could be? No, I was fine a few minutes ago, why would it just appear out of nowhere? I stumbled, and Blake caught me in her arms. "Hey, here, I got you. While I can't exactly put you on my back, you can lean on my shoulder."

My vision started getting worse. Though leaning on her shoulder made me go way faster, I felt as if I should've just stayed behind and let the girls explore in there. There was a ringing in my ear, and all my eyes could see was red light. I wish it was some sort of traffic light, telling me to stop. You don't have to do this anymore. It's okay. Head back, and this little all be over.

...It's as if someone's toying with my mind. Am I not meant to go further into the cave? Why is my body trying to stop me from going in...? The ringing noise I dreaded so much hit my ears once more.

All the thoughts preoccupied me, and Blake waved her hand in front of my face. I look up, and see a gigantic red glowing stone. It reminded me of SYSTEM's keystones.

Though, my mind was spinning at speeds I didn't even know it could go. I felt compelled to reach out my hand, and touch the stone.

I reached out and was about to touch it, but felt Blake's hand steer mine back down to my hips. "Narukami, don't. We don't know if it's safe or not to touch. Besides that, how are you faring?"

How am I faring...? Wait, no, I almost touched the stone, didn't I? I want to apologize, but I couldn't find the energy to respond to her...

I looked over to the left, and saw Yang put Ragna down on the floor. He seemed in pain, like I was, but he found the strength to walk on over to me. He groaned, and he put a hand on my shoulder. I started falling and my hand slid across the surface the red blinding stone.

...

...

...

"Wow, talk about a total klutz. You really still managed to lay a finger on the keystone?"

I knew that snarky voice so vividly.

"Ahem, one two, Phantom Field to Narukami? Check, one two, do you copy? Bzzzzzzt. Colonel, I'm trying to wake Yu Narukami, but he's knocked out cold, and the clap of- Hey, c'mon, get up, contrary to popular belief, I don't want to make these noises all day. Chop chop!"

I groaned, and I could hear her judging me. "Oh, now that's just mean! C'mon, get up now! I can't talk to you all day!"

I forced myself up, and as soon as I finally opened my eyes, all I saw was a dark red glow. I turned my gaze elsewhere, and it never changed. I open my mouth to speak, but I realize I don't feel ill anymore. I sputter, "What the hell is happening?"

"Oh, his first words! How adorable! ...Oh, c'mon, don't look so angry! Don't you know who I am?"

"SYSTEM, how are you alive?"

"Oh, good, you do! Man, I am just touched!"

I crossed my arms in this strange red void I found myself in. SYSTEM started sheepishly laughing, "Okay, okay, I give! I'll be honest, I have no idea myself. You know, I kinda just... kabloosh! Whabam! Shawow! Bwip bwap bwop bwip. Started existing outta nowhere."

I sighed, "Glad to see your personality stuck with you."

"Oh, gee, thanks! I take stride in it!" She sounded cheerful, despite the fact I was being sarcastic. "Listen, listen! I know you've been doing nothing but taking in information again and again and again and again but no real reason as to why it happened. So, good ol' SYSTEM here is jumping on the train! Give me questions! Do it!"

"Why are you helping me? Aren't you the cause of why all this is happening?"

"Yeah, well, that didn't stop me from helping you back in the Phantom Field, did it?"

I groaned, knowing that she's just as ambigious as ever. "Okay, fair... I suppose. How did I get here?"

"You touched the red keystone, Yu! That was a part of my body, and you went and slapped it! Not cool!"

I started closing my eyes to focus on what she was saying. The red glow everywhere started hurting my eyes. "Am I inside the keystone? All this red glow..."

"Eh, nah. I just managed to connect with you because you had skidded your hand onto the keystone. If you had touched it for longer, who knows? Maybe you would've died."

I felt somewhat relieved. But, it was quickly thrown away by my mind asking why. "Ruby's friends... Why didn't they feel sick once they started getting near your body?"

"C'mon Narukami, use that big brain of yours! Hiya! Lightning round! Lightning round! What's one thing you and Ragna have in common?"

"We... had a keystone given to us in the Phantom Field...?" There was tons of other common traits, but I decided that the keystones were more of a concern.

"Precisely! The keystones inside of you two don't like any other color of keystones! Nuh uh! It's like opposites, but if the opposites hated each other and reacted viciously to any other keystone. Of course, this only happens to the body keystone. The tiny ones are fine when they're together."

"Well, I guess that explains why I felt so horrible... How do I get the keystone out of me?"

"Hey, I'm not going to answer any questions your buddies already figured out."

"What? Who?"

"Ruby and Shadow Hyde. They already figured that out, buckaroo."

"How do you know that..?"

"Wow, take a minute to at least think about how! Oh, damn, your body is leaving the cave! Uh, what to do... Fine! Just this once, I'm going to tell you this outright!"

I opened my eyes, and saw the red glow fading into black. I reached my hand out, and saw the glow getting weaker. I shout, "I guess our time is short here! Quickly tell me!"

"There are four gigantic keystones! One in each world! That's how I know what everyone is doing! Ruby and Shadow Hyde are in Ragna's world!"

"T-Thank you!" I never thought I would thank SYSTEM of all people... But, I meant it when I thanked her. The light was so dim, I could hardly see anything but black.

It was so soft, but I could hear it. SYSTEM's voice started fading. "Keep at it, Narukami!"

...

...

...

I woke up and find myself sitting upwards with a jolt. Yang screamed, and nearly fell over at the sight of me. She yelled, "Jeez! Narukami, please don't do that! You just reduced my life by a few minutes, you gave me a fright!"

I stare at her, confused. "Oh, sorry."

"What do you mean, 'oh, sorry'? You wake up 5 hours later, and you don't even sound concerned!"

Why is getting knocked unconscious seem to be a trend for me... I thought, realizing that the sun has already gone down. I look around at my surroundings, realizing that we were in a different cave.

"Hey, Yang? You guys were running away from some fighting-crazed lunatic, right? Do you think we're far enough from him to just sit around here?"

"I mean... Yes, we were running away... But the health of you and Ragna got so bad in that cave, that we decided to camp out in here until you woke up. I'll be honest, I don't even know if that lunatic is chasing us. Ragna told us that he would follow, but no sign of that fighting lover whatsoever. I think we're safe."

"Oh, I see. Is that all that happened after I passed out?"

"Yeah, basically. The team brought you back here, and I was assigned to stay with you while they searched the cave with the red stone. Speaking of, what happened to you in there?"

"...L...Let me start at the beginning. I spoke with SYSTEM, Yang. She gave me a lot of info-"

"SYSTEM's alive!?"

"Hah, yeah, it shocked me also. But, with the information she gave me, I think I can get a better grasp on everything that has been going on... But, it requires me to world jump once more."

"I'm all ears, Narukami. And all brawn! Mostly brawn, though... As concerning this situation is, I think you'd be better off holding the info until the others get here."

"R-Right... You have a point." I stared outside. The sky was beautiful, and if I wasn't in dire straits I would enjoy it way more.

If I'm to get the information I need, I'm going to have to jump to Ragna's world as well and meet Ruby and Shadow Hyde.

In the end, shared information means more than it ever could in this situation.

I believe a key step to figuring out the entire situation is to find the gigantic keystones that were connected to SYSTEM's body...

And have the same color corresponding keystone join up with it. SYSTEM said herself, the other colors hate each other, but what about the same color?

That being said...

What exactly is SYSTEM's goal..?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Happy 2020! Updates will come in faster than they currently have been. Sorry for the long wait!


	14. Terms and Conflictions

I slammed the door to Kokonoe's files shut and huffed. "Hyde, you done over there?"

After hearing no answer, I turn around to see how he was doing. He had stolen a lollipop from Kokonoe's desk and was laid out on the floor, faced towards the roof. He had finished sorting out the files on his end quite a long time ago, I just didn't take notice. I couldn't tell if the lollipop was finished, but either way he was sleeping peacefully. It was rather assuring.

I yawned, then shook myself awake. Kokonoe had left the room to figure out... something. I'll be honest, I had no idea what she said. I was just overwhelmed by all the files she gave us to even comprehend anything. The stack of files was massive, and it took hours for me to even read and sort out half.

Kokonoe seemed to take key words she didn't recognize from other files and got files of those words. Earlier I saw a file on semblances, then jumped to dust, then to Grimm. Getting every tidbit from four worlds surely wastes a hefty amount of paper and folders...

Oh, that being said, I purposefully left out important folders so that Hyde and I can look over them. He told me that knowledge of all the worlds will make everything easier. Now that I've read half, I can see that his statement held true. My attention span did not hold, though. I'm quite tired, too. I don't blame Hyde for sleeping. He probably hasn't had a rest in a long time.

How long has it been? Kokonoe doesn't have a clock here, so I have no way of telling. Should I take a lollipop?

Eh, why not. I took off the wrapping and plopped it into my mouth. Strawberry flavored, nifty. Alright. I should take a look at the files Hyde thought were important to know. I walked over to his stack, and found it to be bigger than I thought it would be.

I took the top file, and saw it was labelled Hollow Night. Oh, the real Hyde mentioned it to me once when we fought together.

_Hollow Night_

_A phenomenon that happens once a month in Kanzakai. Happens during a full moon in an area. If you are in the area, you get dragged into the realm of the Hollow Night. Normal people can also wander into the Night._

_Voids manifest in the Hollow Night. If normal people are bitten by a void, they either become a void if they cannot keep their sanity, or become an in:birth if they retain it._

Voids and in:births... I know Shadow Hyde is a void and that Hyde is an in:birth. In:birth... sounds weird. Next file!

_Voids_

Oh, hey, great! I was just wondering about those. Sure, Hyde explained it to me earlier, but a refresher is never bad.

_Invisible creatures that live in the Hollow Night. Their most common form is black blobs. Incapable of thinking and uses instincts. If a human turns into a void, they stay human-looking except for their eyes. They get consumed by black mass the longer they live until there isn't a trace of them being human left._

_Only those who have been bitten by a void can see voids._

_List of victims:_

...There's seven pages of victims..? The font size is so small for these pages too...

I... I'm not quite sure I want to read all of this.

I slowly close the folder and set it aside, looking at the ones below it. EXS, re:birth, Licht Kreis, Amnesia, Hilda, Linne, Void Red... Ogh, what do I start with? C'mon, there's gotta be something that can wake me up. Does Kokonoe have a sink so I can splash cold water on myself? I look around, and see another stack. The top folder says Inaba.

Agh, what!? There's more? It's sorted by world! I groan, and sat on the floor. Kokonoe gave me the files related to my world, while Hyde was given the ones related to his and Narukami's.

I took the lollipop out of my mouth, looking at how much it shrank. I bit into it and the strawberry ball broke into bits. I threw the stick in the trash can. I'm not one to just sit around, I guess... I took one of the folders from the table randomly, and read the label.

_EXS & FLS_

I threw the folder upwards without caring where it landed. I grabbed another folder, and this time it was a name.

_Hilda_

Reading through a persons file can't be THAT boring. I got this.

"Ow..." I jumped at the sudden noise, and moved my sight from the folder to Hyde. The EXS folder had fallen onto his face, and woken him up. He flicked the folder off of his body. "Ruby, what the hell?"

"Ah, sorry Hyde!" I started waving my hands around. "I didn't mean to wake you!"

"It's alright, but, why'd you even throw it in the first place?" Hyde sat up, and took the lollipop out of his mouth. It was finished, so he threw the stick into the garbage can as well. That's when he noticed the label of the file I threw. "EXS and FLS... Oh, nevermind, I see why now."

"I thought reading about other worlds would be exciting, but for some reason, I'm just tired." I closed the folder I had in my hand.

"I get ya. The files are as blunt as can be. Though, I'm surprised you're reading about my world first... When I mentioned facing your shadow, you seemed pumped up." He opened up the folder about EXS and FLS and just skimmed it. He probably knows all about it already.

"If I had known you sorted them by world beforehand, I would have chosen Narukami's."

He chuckled, "Trust me, I'm sure anyone would. With terms like these, it just gets confusing. I see you have Hilda's folder. I can tell you about her, if you want."

"Please." I didn't want to read it, really. Interacting with someone will wake me up easier. Hyde took the folder from my hands and read it over, making sure he already knew everything in there.

"Uh... I believe your file said you really liked fairy tales, so if we're going off that, Hilda would be the bad guy here." I know he didn't mean any harm by that, but why does it feel like he's dumbing it down for me? "Hilda seeks Hyde's sword, Insulator, because the sword holds enough power to control the Night. Well, those were her words, I still don't understand how it would do that... Anyway, Hilda made a team called Amnesia. The real Hyde was looking at their base, and by then, he vowed to make sure no one finds out about his sword, Insulator. Hilda saw him and invited him inside."

"What? Why? Didn't she know Hyde was her enemy?"

"Yeah, she did. Hilda is like that. She's cocky, but she has enough strength to back that up. She knows she has enough power to kill almost any in:birth. She kept teasing Hyde until he revealed himself as the wielder of Insulator, thinking he could summon his sword. He couldn't."

"How'd Hyde escape?"

"Escape? Pshh..." He started laughing. "He didn't escape, per say. Hilda let him leave."

"Wait, what? Why!?" I was genuinely confused. Her key to her goal was right there! How'd she just let him go like that?

"As I said, she's cocky. She thinks that if Hyde ever versed her in the Hollow Night, she would win anyways."

"Did Hyde win?" Shadow Hyde smiled at me, "Well, did he?"

"Well, they haven't versed yet, Ruby... The Night he was planning to face Hilda, he got sent to Narukami's world."

"Wait, really? Aw..."

"Well, after we all get out of this world jumping mess, Hyde will be able to fight Hilda. The story will pick up from there."

"Yeah, but... I won't be able to know who wins! We'll all the be in our respective worlds!"

"Ok, Ruby, tell me this..." He set the folder down, and smiled at me. "Who do you think is gonna win?"

"Hyde, obviously!"

He chuckled at my answer, and I really didn't know why. "So confident. I believe that's the right answer, too. Eek, maybe I'm a little cocky..."

I hid a small grin. Yeah, it has to be! Hyde has faced his shadow, what has Hilda been through? ...Actually, maybe that's not the best thing to say. I don't know what Hilda's been through. But that doesn't change the fact that I want Hyde to win against her!

I see Hyde sitting up and going over to the table with all the files. He went over and specifically picked up a folder labelled Shadow-Selves.

"Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting you're a Shadow." My time with him has been pleasant, so I somehow just forgot. "I read about Voids earlier... How come you're both a Shadow and a Void?"

"Beats me."

"...Is facing my Shadow scary?"

He was surprised I just went and asked that question, especially since the mood didn't call for this. He thought for a long time. "...It depends. How much are you hiding from others?"

...I don't think I'm hiding much? I think... one key point is that I never think about myself too much. It's always been about others. Their problems are my problems, and I find there's not that much time for me to even find my own problems. But somehow, my mouth ignored the question. "...How bad did Hyde have it?"

He didn't seem to like that question. On top of that, I didn't answer his question, either. He answered, but with hesitance. "...He had it rough. I put him through hell and tried to make him kill Linne. I'm fortunate Narukami got there just in time. Hyde has always been troubled before he entered the Phantom Field, so with me being a Shadow, I felt like it was my duty to tell him what he really thinks. Turns out he just has a lot to hide. Me rapid firing him with his troubles on top of attempting to force him to kill Linne... He might just kill me if I see him again."

For once, I was glad Yang wasn't here. She'd definitely say something along the lines of 'You mean 'A lot to Hyde?' Eh? Eh?'... Oh, now Hyde's looking at me sternly.

I wonder what the real Hyde is doing right now? Hm. Maybe if Shadow Hyde and the real Hyde meet up again, I can explain what happened. Maybe? Hyde would listen to me, wouldn't he? Hey, you'll never know until you try it! It's better than staying here and being bored. "Hey, Hyde! I have an idea!"

"What? No, Ruby, no avoiding my question!"

"Nope! C'mon, we can resolve that beef between the two of you!" I picked up Crescent Rose and twirled it about. "Clash weapons with me! If anything, I can talk Hyde into not fighting you!"

"Eh?! Hey, no, there's a lot of things wrong with this! First off, Kokonoe doesn't even know we're leavi-"

"Wrote a note!" I plopped right into view and showed him the note I wrote. There were more petals flying in the air.

He gawked. "When did you have time to write that!?"

"Just now!" I grabbed his wrist, and he was surprised by both my response and my impatience. I twirled Crescent Rose with my free hand. "C'mon, let's go!"

"No, no, no! We're not going! We don't even know if your keystone is recharged yet!" I thought about it, while twirling Crescent Rose in the air again. He grabbed my scythe to make me stop moving it. "Stop twirling it! You're going to cut this place up if something goes wrong!"

"Ey, no, I've twirled a thousand times before! I'm not suddenly going to mess up now! Let my scythe go-" I realized there was a red light underneath the two of us. It was getting brighter.

"Uh... please tell me this doesn't count as clashing weapons..."

"Ah, well, you know, some people fight with their hands...?"

"...Of course... Remember to leave the note, at least."

I threw the note onto the table with all the folders.

Then my sight switched to pitch darkness.

...

...

...

I felt my body slam onto a carpetted floor. I groan, getting myself to stand up. I look behind me, and Hyde's already standing. He seems to be staring at someone.

"Ah, you're terribly late, boy. I see you brought a friend. Can't beat me on your own, I see?"

The voice screamed refined and important, but was also cocky. She struck me as a woman who knew her worth and flaunts it-

Wait, no way...

I look at Hyde, and he's more shocked than scared. I look up to the person he's staring at.

Her dress was black and white. She has long blonde hair in a ponytail, and the atmosphere was threatening. She general mood of this place seemed scary.

I spoke carefully, "You... wouldn't happen to be Hilda, would you?"

"Oho, you know my real name? Alright. This is going to be real interesting."


End file.
